SiBRASS 2020 CONCERT CYCLE, 4th concert

Brass quintet
Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 11 p.m.
Slovenian Philharmonic, Marjan Kozina Hall

Schaka Brass Quintet
Matej Kravcar, trumpet
Dominic Rus, trumpet
Blaž Ogrič, horn
Tine Plahutnik, trombone
Rok Grubelnik, tuba

Programme

Victor Evald
TRUMPET QUINTET NO. 1 in B minor, Op. 5
Moderato
Adagio – Allegro vivace – Adagio
Allegro moderato

Andrej Misson
MEDITATION ON GALLUS ECCE QUOMODO MORITUR IUSTUS

Jani Golob
BRASSY
Intro
Ballads
Grotesque
Final

Michael Kamen
QUINTET

Joseph Horovitz
CONCERT HALL SUITE
Soubrette Song
Trick Cyclists
Adagio Team
Soft Shoe Shuffle
‘Les Girls’

The final concert of this year’s SiBRASS cycle will be marked by music for the oldest established ensemble in the field of brass – brass quintet. Members of the Schaka brass quintet will perform: trumpet players Matej Kravcar and Dominik Rus, horn player Blaž Ogrič, trombonist Tine Plahutnik and tubist Rok Grubelnik. The program consists of five parts, of which at least two – the introductory Quintet no. 1 in B minor, Op. 5 by Viktor Evald and the Suite for the Concert Hall by Joseph Horovitz – are part of the repertoire canon for this type of ensemble. Russian composer Viktor Evald has been considered the father of the modern brass quintet genre for many years. Although musicologists have recently discovered that works for the composition of five brass instruments of various registers were created about sixty years before by the lesser-known French composer and musician Jean-Francois Bellon, this does not diminish the value of Evald’s contribution to the trumpet quintet’s repertoire. He composed four quintets in which he wanted to emphasize both the virtuosity of individual brass instruments as well as the sound possibilities offered by an ensemble composed of various instruments from the brass family. At the time of the formation of the four quintets – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – due to various practices in European countries, the brass quintet could consist of several different instruments: two trumpets, cornets or wing horns, one French or alto horn and two low instruments. , where at first they were mostly tenor horn or tenor and tuba, but later the tenor was replaced by a trombone. The composition of the trumpet quintet became standardized in the middle of the last century, and today we find two trumpets, a horn, a trombone and a tuba. With a romantic musical idiom imbued with Brass Quintet no. 1 in B minor, Op. 5 was created in 1890. It is designed according to classical patterns, and the three sentences follow each other according to the traditional principle of fast-slow-fast. For a long time it was considered Evald’s only work of its kind, as it was the only one published during the composer’s lifetime. Although today marked with serial number 1, Evald composed his debut for this type of ensemble two years earlier (today marked under serial number 4), which was considered unfeasible at the time and was thus forced to be transformed into a string quartet released. as op. 1.

The diverse work of the composer, professor at the Academy of Music, choirmaster and organist Andrej Misson, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, is dominated by vocal and chamber music, and music with spiritual content also occupies an important place. In composing, he is guided by the principle “write little and thoughtfully and be completely faithful to your sound”, he is also inspired by metaphysics and the transcendence of the spiritual world. It is therefore not surprising that the composer also found inspiration in the musical art of Jacobus Handl Gallus. He wrote about him years ago as follows: “Gallus was an exceptional Carniolan composer. Many contemporary composers find inspiration in his music, myself too, and this many times. Above all, I feel that his music should also be performed with musical instruments (ricercar), ensembles and an orchestra.” The core of the Meditation on Gallus’s Ecce quomodo moritur iustus of course represents the famous Lent motet entitled Watch the Righteous Die, which seems to be written (also) perfect for the brass band. Misson expanded the original quatrain into a five-part sentence, slightly refining the harmony and adding an introduction and coda to the core represented by the motet.

The melodically inspired work entitled Brassy, ​​in which the composer Jani Golob gave priority to more modern sound expression to melodious and primarily understandable musical ideas, premiered on March 16, 2015, when it was performed by the SiBRASS Brass Quintet in Studio 14 of Radio Slovenia. The composer composed the work for the then jubilee 30th Slovenian Music Days and wrote briefly and concisely about it as follows: “It is a cyclical four-movement composition, created on the initiative of the first trumpet player Franc Kosem. As the title suggests, the song is supposed to be friendly to the performers and allow them to play music in a relaxed way.” The titles of the four characteristically different phrases are: Intro, Ballads, Grotesque and Final.

American composer, arranger and conductor Michael Kamen was primarily a diverse musical figure. His oeuvre consists mainly of arrangements of popular music and film scores, and there are only a few works that can be placed in the field of artistic, serious classical music. Among the latter is certainly the Quintet composed by Kamen for the famous brass band Canadian Brass. Short, emotional and infused with the warmth of the author’s film scores, the composition is marked by a rich melodic invention, which offers musicians plenty of opportunities to make music. The musical flow grows from the introductory pastoral motif of the horn, which resonates in the rest of the instruments during the composition, almost overflowing.

The programme is rounded off by the Joseph Horovitz Concert Hall Suite. In 1964, it was commissioned by the legendary tubist Roger Bobo, and this popular work soon found its place in the permanent repertoire of the then leading ensemble of this kind, the famous Brass Ensemble Philip Jones. The suite consists of five short phrases illustrating the various elements of burlesque theater, musical venues, circus and cabaret that were popular at the turn of the 20th century. The titles of the phrases are: Soubrette Song, Trick Cyclists, Adagio Team, Soft Shoe Shuffle, and Les Girls.

Schaka Brass Quintet
The Schaka Quintet is a group of five young musicians from different parts of Slovenia, graduates of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, led by music, combining the joy of making music together and connected by a sincere friendship. The ensemble includes trumpet players Matej Kravcar and Dominik Rus, horn player Blaž Ogrič, trombonist Tine Plahutnik and tubist Rok Grubelnik. They started working as a brass quintet in the 2017/2018 academic year under the mentorship of assistant professor Franc Kosem, and they also improved their knowledge with other renowned masters of the brass world, such as Leonhard Paul (Mnozil Brass), Chris Coletti (Canadian Brass) and Marco Pierobon ( Gomalan Brass). At the Competition of Young Musicians of the Republic of Slovenia TEMSIG 2019, they were awarded a gold plaque. The musicians are distinguished by their professionalism, reliability and flexibility, they try to recreate a program that is interesting to the widest circle of the audience, and with their joy of making music together and positive energy, they know how to conjure a pleasant atmosphere.