The big brass....

The Colorado Symphony performed Bruckner's 7Th symphony over this past weekend. What a sound! Bruckner has always been one of my favorites and his 7Th was wonderful. I'm listening to it again as I type this. At the applause, the maestro, Hans Graf, gave special attention to the euphonium section, the substitutes for the "Wagner tubas" which highlight the second movement and are heard throught. You don't hear the euphonium often, but at the University of Colorado the other night I heard a faculty concert, "The Winsome Tuba", with Michael Dunn on tuba. During the concery there was a performance with Aaron Tindall on the euphonium of "Michelangelo". The composer was listed as both Sigfart Dagsland and Sigvard Dagsland. I prefer the former, chuckle, chuckle. It's the first time I can recall that I attended an all tuba concert. Fun, but not something I'd want to do again in the immediate future. Dunn showed the extreme ranges of the tuba and played well, so to hear both the tuba and euphonium in a duet was fun and an ear challenge -- well done by both.

Back on Bruckner, my favorite Internet music station, contemporary-classical.com, introduced me to a composer that I've never heard of,Albéric Magnard, the "French Bruckner". I ordered his complete (4) symphonies from Amazon and weeks later, from England, they arrived. Perhaps I'm jaded and perhaps I've listened to too many symphonies by all the greats, but I'm really enjoying these new works by Magnard. One might assume that something broadcast on a contemporary classical internet station might be a bit weird, but these symphonies are not. With some similarities to Wagner and Bruckner and Franck, these are tonal, fairly long and thoroughly romantic works that would appeal to most audiences. Too bad Magnard isn't better know, but I'm glad I found out about him. Thank you contemporary-classical.com.

By the way, Magnard was killed in the early days of World War I defending his home against invading or marauding German soldiers. He was reputed to have a temper and personality like his dwarf name-sake from the Ring. His home was burned, apparently along with some of his other compositions.