CHICAGO GARGOYLE BRASS AND ORGAN ENSEMBLE

"This album is worth hearing if only for the opener, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. The thunderous first sounds are jaw-dropping, thanks to the powerful Casavant Freres organ in the Oak Park Church... I was also captivated by the airy and gentle organ chords at 3:40... All [the works] offer many impressive moments."

Kilpatrick, American Record Guide [November/December 2023]

"Adventurous and varied programming combined with polished arrangements, and Stephen Squires' perceptive direction, all come together to make for a satisfying listening experience."

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel [August 2023]

"This is one of those releases that on first glance, I simply did not quite know what to expect... Well, only one way to find out, so I stuck the disc in my CD player and hit PLAY button. Here we go… From the familiar opening measures of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, I was delighted by how enjoyable it was to hear this familiar music presented this in this different sonority. It just sounded right. Somehow the energy of the brass and the organ captured the fervor of Beethoven’s score in a fresh, exciting way that did not sound at all gimmicky or contrived. And so it went through the rest of the program, with highlights including the Messiaen, whose spiritually informed music lends itself especially well to being arranged for brass and organ, and the Brahms, upon which this arrangement throws a new light.... [Regarding the Mahler] I admire the audacity and skill of these players in presenting this magnificent music in this form... [a] highly recommendable release"

Karl Nehring, Classical Candor [September 2023]

"[Lohengrin's] sense of ethereality well-captured in the arrangement... the churchlike atmosphere [of How They So Softly Rest by Healey Willan] is well-sustained by brass and organ."

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [August 2023]

"Those busy little Gargoyles are at it again! The Chicago-based brass and organ ensemble again display their audacious blend of adventuresome programming and scintillating performance style, all arranged in imaginative settings by Craig Garner. An attractive program... Stephen Squires is the conductor of a well-balanced program that has something for every listener’s taste."

Phil Muse, Atlanta Audio Club [Summer 2023]

This album of seven selected works, both original and arranged for Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, celebrates the group’s 30th anniversary in a manner consonant with the idea of transcendence, the seeking for that spirit which hovers, ineffable. Music approaches - but like the asymptote of a cosmic parabola - never quite encompasses that which eludes the intellectual grasp of words but accessible by music. Leader Rodney Holmes has curated this collection of masterworks following the inspiration of Gustav Mahler who said, “If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music.”
 
CHICAGO GARGOYLE BRASS AND ORGAN ENSEMBLE
H. Rodney Holmes Founder and Artistic Director
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass was founded in 1992 by its Artistic Director, H. Rodney Holmes, as a chamber group of faculty and students at the University of Chicago, whose campus architecture boasts a charming variety of the ensemble’s namesake. By 2006, the ensemble had slowly professionalized and established a residency in the western suburbs at a major church with a full-time professional organist. Over the next five years, the group transformed itself into a specialized brass and organ concert ensemble, comprised of classically trained musicians, performing a wide variety of repertoire in an equally diverse range of settings. Well into its third decade, the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble maintains its position at the cutting edge of music for brass and organ, commissioning and performing new arrangements and compositions for that instrumental pairing.
[ www.gargoylebrass.com ]
 
Craig Garner has been arranging music for more than 30 years, and has performed with the Boston Pops, Boston Opera Company Orchestra and other Boston area orchestras. As an arranger, Garner has for the last 20 years concentrated on music for brass instruments, having has published more than 120 works. During that time, he co-founded Dorm 40 Music, a publishing company specializing in music for brass. Garner focuses on arranging long-form symphonic works, not typically found in the brass ensemble repertoire. Garner attended the Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory, where he received a Master of Music degree. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
EGMONT OVERTURE

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
ELSA’S PROCESSION TO THE CATHEDRAL from Lohengrin

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
APPARITION DE L’ÉGLISE ÉTERNELLE (Apparition of the Eternal Church)

Healey Willan (1880-1968)
HOW THEY SO SOFTLY REST

William C. White (b.1983)
FLOOD OF WATERS (Noah and the Flood)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY HAYDN “ST. ANTHONY VARIATIONS”
I. Theme: St. Anthony Chorale
II. Variation I (Poco più animato)
III. Variation II (Più vivace)
IV. Variation III (Con moto)
V. Variation IV (Andante con moto)
VI. Variation V (Poco presto)
VII. Variation VI (Vivace)
VIII. Variation VII (Grazioso)
IX. Variation VIII (Presto non troppo)
X. Finale (Andante)

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
SYMPHONY NO.2 “RESURRECTION”
I. Urlicht
II. Finale (Andante)
 



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