Royal College of Music Wind Orchestra

Royal College of Music Wind Orchestra - Sousa: Music for Wind Band, Vol. 19 (2019)

Royal College of Music Wind Orchestra - Sousa: Music for Wind Band, Vol. 19 (2019)
WEB FLAC (tracks+booklet) - 237 MB | Tracks: 8 | 63:52 min
Style: Classical | Label: Naxos

In addition to his world-famous marches, John Philip Sousa was a master of the piquant Humoresque, of which there are two examples here. The first, On the 5.15, is a popular song detailing the travails of a commuter, while the second, The Band Came Back, introduces popular tunes in witty fashion. The sonorous Second Fantasia from El Capitan showcases the bands bravura qualities and The Fighting Race draws on a trombone solo. There are charming detours to explore rural Americana in the form of Sheep and Goat (Walkin to the Pasture) and the evergreen classic, Turkey in the Straw.
Clark Rundell, Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra - Percy Grainger: Transcriptions for Wind Orchestra (2008)

Clark Rundell, Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra - Percy Grainger: Transcriptions for Wind Orchestra (2008)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 218 Mb | Total time: 60:51 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN 10455 | Recorded: 2007

The eccentric Percy Grainger was well-known for his musical arrangements which ranged from works by other composers as well as arrangements of his own original and folk music settings. These arrangements form a body of work which is perhaps unique in musical history.
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra - Homages for Wind (2007/2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra - Homages for Wind (2007/2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Front Cover | Time - 58:31 minutes | 905 MB
Classical | Studio Master, Official Digital Download

Brilliant playing: no wonder they are the finest wind orchestra in Britain.
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra & Joaquin Rodrigo - Latin Winds (2018)

Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra & Joaquin Rodrigo - Latin Winds (2018)
Classical | WEB FLAC (tracks) & d. booklet | 270 MB
Label: Chandos | Tracks: 11 | Time: 66:14 min

From Spain to Mexico and Brazil, the RNCM Wind Orchestra, under the conductors Clark Rundell and Mark Heron, here celebrates the strong Latin tradition of wind bands in an exhilarating programme. The album prominently features works by one of the most iconic composers for winds, the Brazilian Villa-Lobos. Their liveliness, freely changing modalities, ease of flow, and likeable sonorities are a striking compositional signature, the unusual Concerto Grosso exploring a unique sound world with concertante discussion among the four wind soloists and the wind band.
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Wind Orchestra & Keith Brion - Sousa: Music for Wind Band, Vol. 20 (2021)

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Wind Orchestra & Keith Brion - Sousa: Music for Wind Band, Vol. 20 (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 228 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 144 Mb | 01:02:45
Classical, Brass | Label: Naxos Records

John Philip Sousa personified turn-of-the-century America—the comparative innocence and brash energy of an advancing nation. His ever-touring band represented America across the globe and brought lively and entertaining music to hundreds of American towns. Sousa’s name is eternally connected with famous marches such as The Stars and Stripes Forever, but his exceptional inventiveness also saw the creation of popular operettas such as El Capitan. This program also includes Sousa’s adaptations of humorous songs and popular ballads as well as his Good-Bye, based on the idea of Haydn’s ‘Farewell’ Symphony but with a modern twist.
The Grainger Edition, Volume 8 - Works for Wind Orchestra 2 (1998)

The Grainger Edition, Volume 8 - Works for Wind Orchestra 2 (1998)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 260 Mb | Total time: 65:04 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN 9630 | Recorded: 1992, 1997

The Power of Rome is a strange work – thoughtful and seemingly with a profound philosophical message. It has some weird pages such as the Holstian fog that is the section from 6:00 onwards. Children’s March in this version has parts for four tenors and four basses rather than the orchestra alone version neatly enunciated by Boult on Lyrita. This is a quick march before tiredness has set in and is as much a jiggy dance as it is a march. As usual with Grainger there are some surprises, skirls and expostulations along the way. Bell Piece is a salon farewell – a touch Puccinian - rather pleadingly sung by James Gilchrist who is caught very early in his career.
The Grainger Edition, Volume 4 - Works for Wind Orchestra 1 (1997)

The Grainger Edition, Volume 4 - Works for Wind Orchestra 1 (1997)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 245 Mb | Total time: 60:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN 9549 | Recorded: 1996

Works for Wind Orchestra I and II are performed by the RNCM wind ensemble conducted by long-time wind orchestra champions: Tim Reynish and Clark Rundell. Hill Song No. 2 is notable for its skirl and sway – echoing Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony more than once. Faeroe Island Dance is mistily haunting yet with a dancing pattern which is brother to Shepherd’s Hey and Molly on the Shore. The Lads of Whamphray March is irrepressibly cheery and seethes with fascinating invention. The tart windband flavour adds nicely to Shepherd’s Hey! All the favourites are here in new garb. It’s done with a snap and a clicking of the fingers. The slalom-ski runs, percussion ‘graffiti’ and anarchic instrumental slashes in Gum-Suckers’ March are well worth confronting. The punched out Lost Lady Found is the finale of the gamely youthful Lincolnshire Posy. It’s given a weighty punch here and the cross-cutting effects place it clearly in Holst windband territory.
Royal Welsh College of Music - Sousa - Music for Wind Band, Vol. 20 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Royal Welsh College of Music - Sousa - Music for Wind Band, Vol. 20 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Front Cover | Time - 62:05 minutes | 1,03 GB
Classical | Label: Naxos, Official Digital Download

John Philip Sousa personified turn-of-the-century America—the comparative innocence and brash energy of an advancing nation. His ever-touring band represented America across the globe and brought
Jennifer Pike, Sina Kloke - Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending; Suite of Six Short Pieces; The Solent; Fantasia (2016)

Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending;
Suite of Six Short Pieces; The Solent; Fantasia (2016)
Chamber Orchestra of New York, conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio
Jennifer Pike, violin; Sina Kloke, piano

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 229 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.573530 | Time: 01:02:23

Vaughan Williams withdrew or destroyed many works from his earliest period, but he considered The Solent, with its haunting opening and luminous polyphonic textures, as among his ‘most important works’. The Fantasia is his earliest known piece for solo instrument with orchestra and contains some of his most bravura writing, contrasting with the graceful geniality of the Suite. Depicting a sublimely pastoral scene and now one of the best loved pieces ever written, Vaughan Williams called The Lark Ascending a ‘romance’, a term reserved for his most profoundly lyrical works.
Örebro Symphony Orchestra, Stig Westerberg - Oskar Lindberg: Symphony, Rhapsody, Suite (1998)

Örebro Symphony Orchestra, Stig Westerberg - Oskar Lindberg: Symphony, Rhapsody, Suite (1998)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:03:30 | 290 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Sterling | Catalog: CDS-1015-2

Oskar Lindberg was a composer of popular organ and choral works. I have previously reviewed his Requiem, an impressive score of richly melodic bent. It is hardly surprising he veered towards these particular genres, as he was organist at the Engelbrekt Church in Stockholm for forty years. He also taught music at the city’s Royal College of Music. A homebird by inclination, he never strayed further afield. His orchestral music includes one symphony, two rhapsodies, four suites, five symphonic poems and six small orchestral pieces. Two of the works on this release, the Symphony and Fiddler Per, He Fiddled are receiving their world premiere recordings.