The Naxos label's complete three-volume cycle of Percy Grainger's music for wind band, by the Royal Norwegian Navy Band under Bjarte Engeset, has been a delight from the start to this final album. Each album in the set has a miscellaneous collection of Grainger works, which is all to the good since it showcases the extraordinary range and color of Grainger's writing in this genre. But to some degree, the best has been saved for last. The composer's folk song settings are represented in A Lincolnshire Posy, one of his most ...
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The Naxos label's complete three-volume cycle of Percy Grainger's music for wind band, by the Royal Norwegian Navy Band under Bjarte Engeset, has been a delight from the start to this final album. Each album in the set has a miscellaneous collection of Grainger works, which is all to the good since it showcases the extraordinary range and color of Grainger's writing in this genre. But to some degree, the best has been saved for last. The composer's folk song settings are represented in A Lincolnshire Posy, one of his most famous pieces, and one that was premiered by workers from the Blatz and Pabst breweries in Milwaukee. There are arrangements of John Jenkins and, remarkably for the day, Machaut. But most of the rest of the program is given over to longer works, several of which are even more experimental than the common run of Grainger's music. The Immovable Do (or The Cyphering C) is reputed to contain the longest pedal point in the history of music, and the Hill-Song No. 1, from early in his...
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