Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard School Brass - Gabrieli for Brass - BBC Radio 3 'Record Review'

What’s the connection between Giovanni Gabrieli and Sir Elton John? This brand new recording apparently and I love this classy, brassy sound.

Isn’t that a gorgeous sound? Some of the finest young brass players from both sides of the Atlantic, from the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Juilliard School in New York conducted by renowned trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich in an album of Giovanni Gabrieli’s richly sonorous Venetian polyphony alongside some of his contemporaries. Modern instruments, so it’s at contemporary concert pitch, but played in an historic temperament and with ornamentation suggested by a period specialist. The result is a richly rewarding blend of ancient and modern, the recording itself is deeply satisfying as I hope you can tell. You’ll find ‘Gabrieli for Brass: Venetian Extravaganza’ on Linn Records, released just yesterday. The Elton John connection? Well apparently he was there when the special friendship between the Royal Academy and Juilliard students began at a concert at New York’s Radiocity Music Hall back in 2004, and that was the year before their appearance together at the BBC Proms, if you remember that.