Faulkner Performing Arts Center, Arkansas (USA)

The brass septet is a brand new invention, and therein lies the root of our compulsion to steal: we have no canon of repertoire, no grand history of great compositions.

And so we’re inventing one. Like musical Robin Hoods we thieve from the richest ensembles to create a counterfactual history — a parallel universe in which, in the world of chamber music, the brass septet rules.

The 18th-century orchestra of Handel’s Rinaldo and Rameau’s Dardanus is brought to life in borrowings for brass. Septura’s Pergolesi, by contrast, is third-hand: Stravinsky got there first, and his neoclassical Pulcinella is re-imagined for brass, alongside some early neoclassical piano works by Prokofiev.

Rameau Dardanus
Prokofiev Op. 12 Suite
Handel Rinaldo
Stravinsky Pulcinella