Richard Strauss: The Happy Workshop and Serenade Op.7
$11.98 – $16.98
Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble
George Vosburgh, Conductor
Presenting Rare Gems from Richard Strauss
Reference Recordings is proud to present our first album with the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble, conducted and produced by George Vosburgh.
Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble traces its roots to the Carnegie Tech Kiltie Band, founded in 1908. Over the years, the Kiltie Band grew and enjoyed a long and distinguished history as a concert band. For decades, it was the preeminent performing ensemble at the University, appearing regularly in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In modern times, single players perform each instrumental part, emulating an orchestral wind section. This style of playing in a large ensemble allows for the tonal colors found in a symphony orchestra.
Unusual and underperformed repertoire has long been a hallmark of the ensemble’s programming. This album exemplifies that, with the pairing of Strauss’ 1945 Symphony for Winds in E-flat Major (The Happy Workshop) and his 1881 Serenade for Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 7. Notes writer Amanda Vosburgh states: “Taken together, the Serenade Op. 7 and The Happy Workshop form the bookends to a long and diverse body of work, marked by innovative chromaticism and complexity, but tethered at either end to the classical tradition.”
Conductor George Vosburgh has enjoyed a long and multifaceted international career as a soloist, orchestral musician, teacher, and conductor. He holds a GRAMMY® for his 1985 Reference Recordings release of L’Histoire du Soldat with Chicago Pro Musica, and is a laureate of the ARD Music Competition in Munich. From 1992–2017, he held the Martha Brooks Robinson Principal Trumpet Chair in the Pittsburgh Symphony. He appears on numerous RR albums with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon University since 1992 and has been Director of the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble since 2011.
Extra notes
Compact Disc with high resolution and standard resolution digital downloads
On This Recording
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Happy Workshop Op. posthumous – 1945
- Allegro con brio
- Andantino, sehr gemächlich
- Menuet, etwas lebhaft
- Enlietung, (Andante) und Allegro Serenade Op. 7 – 1881
- Andante
Reviews:
“This new recording features … a fine student ensemble directed by George Vosburgh who has long had a fondness for these pieces.… This recording is well performed, and the intonation, balance and ensemble are admirable… many fine moments… joyfulness and enthusiasm… this ensemble delivers” —Geoff Pearce, Classical Music Daily
“It is an intricate work full of difficult writing for the winds, and part of the appeal of this work by the student Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble is that it lies at the very edge of their capabilities; director George Vosburgh has judged their capabilities well. One can certainly find cleaner readings, but few that so fully enter into the spirit of the work. Strauss dedicated the work “to the spirit of the divine Mozart at the end of a grateful life,” and it does reflect a Mozartian strain that runs through Strauss’ entire output and that is also illustrated by the early Serenade, Op. 7, that Strauss wrote in the early 1880s. More than 60 years separate these two works, and the thread connecting them is another piece of charm. Strauss ultimately rejected both works, which contributed to their general neglect, but he was wrong, as composers so often are about their own works, and it is lovely to have them together on this single album.” —James Manheim, AllMusic
“In the middle two (of Workshop’s four) movements, there’s a welcome sense of character and spirit to the group’s playing. The solo clarinet runs in the Andantino sound wonderfully fresh and the Cantabile episodes in the Minuet are beautifully blended. …the Serenade offers fine dynamic shadings and flowing lyrical passagework.” —Jonathan Blumhofer, The ArtsFuse