The First Carnegie Hall Euphonium Recital

The title of this Crystal CD is The First Carnegie Hall Euphonium Recital; one may be pardoned for noting that not many would react to such a pronouncement through proclaiming "It's about time!" And such urgency is not called for in this case; Brian Bowman did in fact present the first euphonium recital at Carnegie Hall, but it was in 1976. In 1978, Bowman recorded most of that program for Crystal Records, who issued the result as an LP; however, the LP release was lacking works by Arthur Frackenpohl and Ermano Picchi that ... Read More

The title of this Crystal CD is The First Carnegie Hall Euphonium Recital; one may be pardoned for noting that not many would react to such a pronouncement through proclaiming "It's about time!" And such urgency is not called for in this case; Brian Bowman did in fact present the first euphonium recital at Carnegie Hall, but it was in 1976. In 1978, Bowman recorded most of that program for Crystal Records, who issued the result as an LP; however, the LP release was lacking works by Arthur Frackenpohl and Ermano Picchi that had been heard on the original program. Crystal's The First Carnegie Hall Euphonium Recital restores the missing items by way of recordings made in 2008, 30 years after the original release. You can definitely hear the difference between the two sets of recordings; the 1978 recordings, with pianist Marjorie Lee, are very bright and forward, whereas the digital ones are a shade more distant and warmer with more of a true perspective on the euphonium's sound, albeit a little hollow... Read Less