Naxos recording series

Septura is recording an unprecedented series of 10 discs for Naxos over 5 years.

Through transcriptions, arrangements and original works, each disc explores a different period, genre and set of composers, asking the question ‘what if these works of art had been written for brass?’.

The series aims to redefine the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium by creating a canon of classical art-music for brass septet – a ‘counter-factual history’ of brass chamber music.

The first seven discs in the series are available now, described variously as “brilliantly done” (Fiona Maddocks, The Observer), “dazzlingly polished” (Anna Picard, BBC Music Magazine) and “brass playing at its most exalted” (Robert Markow, Fanfare). In addition, Christmas with Septura was released in November 2016, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi was released in November 2019.

Naxos recording series

Septura is recording an unprecedented series of 10 discs for Naxos over 5 years.

Through transcriptions, arrangements and original works, each disc explores a different period, genre and set of composers, asking the question ‘what if these works of art had been written for brass?’.

The series aims to redefine the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium by creating a canon of classical art-music for brass septet – a ‘counter-factual history’ of brass chamber music.

The first seven discs in the series are available now, described variously as “brilliantly done” (Fiona Maddocks, The Observer), “dazzlingly polished” (Anna Picard, BBC Music Magazine) and “brass playing at its most exalted” (Robert Markow, Fanfare). In addition, Christmas with Septura was released in November 2016, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi was released in November 2019.

Gershwin, Copland: Music for Brass Septet 7

In this seventh volume of Music for Brass Septet, Septura survey two of America’s greatest and most representative composers.

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Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

Brass instruments are a vital part of the festive fabric of Christmas, and Tchaikovsky’s iconic ballet The Nutcracker is made even more joyful with the brassy brilliance of Septura, and narration by acclaimed actor Sir Derek Jacobi.

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Elgar, Parry, Finzi, Walton: Music for Brass Septet 6

Septura head howeward, with a recording of British music from the first half of the Twentieth Century – a golden age in England’s otherwise chequered compositional history. From the many composers of the period whose music endures we have chosen four of the finest: iconic works by Elgar, Parry, Finzi and Walton, re-imagined for the unique sound of the brass septet.

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Fauré, Ravel, Debussy: Music for Brass Septet 5

Septura turn to one of the most ground-breaking periods of music history: France at the outset of the 20th century. In this fertile compositional field solo brass instruments flourished, but the chamber music landscape was barren. And so the group re-imagine works by the three composers who defined Frances unique musical direction: Fauré, Debussy and Ravel.

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Christmas with Septura

Brass instruments are almost a Christmas cliché: synonymous with the celebration, but perhaps not with the wealth of great music that it has inspired. Septura set out to rectify this, re-imagining for brass septet the Christmas offerings of the greatest composers of the past 450 years. Pushing the combinations and colours of the septet to the limits, the result is a virtuosic and varied selection of festive favourites.

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Gabrieli, Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria: Music for Brass Septet 4

No brass series would be complete without Giovanni Gabrieli, and his music is the starting point as Septura continue on their counterfactual course, imagining that four titans of the counter-reformation – Victoria, Gabrieli, Palestrina and Lassus – had written for brass.

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Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Rachmaninov: Music for Brass Septet 3

Stretching back from the stark Soviet soundscape of Shostakovich, through the early modernism of Prokofiev to the pre-revolutionary opulence of Scriabin and Rachmaninov, Septura redresses a lack of original music for brass by these great composers by charting a turbulent seventy years of Russian history.

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Handel, Purcell, Rameau, Blow: Music for Brass Septet 2

The second volume of Septura’s brass chamber music series takes us back to the 17th Century and the music of Baroque opera, in four contrasting works by Rameau, Blow, Purcell and Handel.

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Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Schumann: Music for Brass Septet

What if four celebrated nineteenth-century composers – Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner and Brahms – had written original works for brass septet? This disc explores that fascinating counter-factual twist, re-imagining choral and organ works by those composers.

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