Ewald Brass Quintets

 

The life of Victor Ewald is intriguing.  In today's age, we generally wouldn't expect top-level engineers to also be exceedingly active in their town's music scene.  Yet, this is what Ewald did.   Ewald (1860-1935) was a civil engineer in Russia who, prior to the discovery of Bellon's Quintets, was believed to have first written brass quintets in their modern configuration (two trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba).  Ewald's four quintets are some of the most played quintets in the modern brass quintet repertoire.  Notably, his first quintet was the only one published in his lifetime.  Meanwhile, his other three quintets were not published until the mid-1970s at which point there was a major desire for modern performances of these works.  

This recording is taken from the Philadelphia Orchestra and was published in 2010.  The recording is only the first movement of Ewald's Third Quintet although it is relatively easy to find the remaining movements.  The five performers are David Bilger and Jeffrey Curnow on trumpet, Jennifer Montone on horn, Nitzan Haroz on trombone, and Carol Jantsch on tuba.