National Brass Ensemble and Eun Sun Kim: Deified
Pentatone

Many things distinguish the double-CD set Deified. It's the first appearance by The National Brass Ensemble (NBE) and conductor Eun Sun Kim on Pentatone, for one; it presents terrific performances by the musicians, for another. What recommends the release most, however, is its programme, which, on its first disc, follows an opening Richard Strauss fanfare with world-premiere recordings of pieces by Jonathan Bingham (b. 1989) and Arturo Sandoval (b. 1949) and, on its second, an incredible recomposition by Timothy Higgins of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. That nearly eighty-minute treatment amounts to a comprehensive brass ensemble tour through four of the composer's operas and offers to other ensembles of similar instrumental makeup a wonderful new work to consider for their own playlists.

If the performances impress, there's good reason: formed in 2014, The National Brass Ensemble features exceptional brass players from major United States orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera/Ballet Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony. The NBE's Artistic Director is Michael Sachs, who also holds the position of Principal Trumpeter with the Cleveland Orchestra and who, of course, plays on the recording. It is he who takes on the considerable logistical task of assembling the musicians for the NBE's projects. Augmenting the brass players are an organist, harpist, timpanist, and percussionists, with all receiving sterling conduction from Eun Sun Kim, the Caroline H. Hume Music Director of San Francisco Opera. In what must have been an exhausting yet nevertheless exhilarating day for the performers, Deified was recorded at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall on June 20th, 2022.

In including references to his Also sprach Zarathustra and Wagner's Tannhäuser, Strauss's Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare, TrV 248 makes for a satisfying and wholly apt entry-point, especially when the piece, short though it is, casts the playing of the ensemble in such a flattering light. There's no missing the precision with which the musicians play and the vitality with which the material's delivered. The two pieces joining it on the twenty-two-minute disc, Bingham's Deified and Sandoval's four-part Brass Fantasy, are memorable too. Drawing inspiration from the audacious narrative concept Christopher Nolan used in Memento (one moving forward in time and the other backward), Bingham likewise incorporates two narratives into the eleven-minute Deified, the effect here palindromic (note the work's title) in its handling of rhythmic and melodic elements. In his words, it alternates between the two in a manner “that allows the former to decay measure by measure as the latter surfaces in the same way”; the process then reverses itself until both aspects appear simultaneously in the finale. Robust and powered by high-energy pulsations and fanfares, Bingham's adventurous setting provides a wonderful showcase for the NBE's different sections. In writing his piece, Sandoval's goal was to create something where all of the instruments would be involved and various styles would be explored. After entering with Bolero-like gestures, Brass Fantasy seems to hint at “Edelweiss” in the gentle second part before blossoming into a sonorous, Spanish-tinged episode. The buoyant third part oozes charm and regal splendour, the fourth drama in its espionage-styled theatrics.

Higgins is formally credited as ‘arranger' for the Wagner treatment, but that undersells what he's accomplished in fashioning a panoramic travelogue that progresses chronologically from Das Rheingold on through Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. The journey commences with horns slowly awakening in “The Rhine” and swelling into a stately chorale. With “From Walhalla to Nibelheim and back,” a mood of foreboding sets in, though a peaceful episode also brings calm. “Siegmund's Flight” is animated, naturally, “Love Theme” tender, “Wotan and Brünnhilde's Arrival” regal, “Siegmund's Death” solemn, “Siegfried and the Rhinemaidens” lyrical and eloquent, the organ- and harp-enhanced “Siegfried's Death and Goodbye” elegiac, and “Siegfried's Funeral March” triumphant. Of course “Ride of the Valkyries” appears, first emerging fleetingly and then in full. In having the twenty parts largely flow from one to the next without pause, The Ring avoids the ‘channel-surfing' effect a piece so structured could have had. Without wishing to sell the first disc's offerings short, it's Higgins' recomposition that is clearly the release's major drawing card. Much credit to Kim also for guiding the musicians through their paces so expertly.

September 2023