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German Brass is a brass ensemble, founded 1974 as Brass Quintet by Enrique Crespo, named "Deutsches Blechbläserquintett – Solobläser deutscher Spitzenorchester" ( German Brass Quintet - Soloists of German top level orchestras )
In 1985, to record the CD "Bach 300" (J.S. Bach born 1685) the group was extended to 10 performers and still makes music in this instrumentation. The group is well known as best performing professional brass ensemble in Germany. More than 20 CDs and 2 DVDs have been recorded to date. German Brass musicians are members of major German Symphony Orchestras and/or are Professors at university schools of music.
German Brass is both: tradition and progress. But above all the ensemble has for years been a synonym for brass music at its highest level. A pioneer among the German brass ensembles, German Brass has co-initiated the brass movement from its beginnings in 1974 and has influenced it decisively ever since.
German Brass has succeeded in creating “diversity in unity”, i.e. to work the miracle of producing a unique, unmistakable collective sound with ten individualists and renowned soloists from outstanding first-class German orchestras. As an ensemble they play transparent chamber music but at the same time with symphonic magnificence and dynamics that only brass intrumentalists can produce.
The repertoire of German Brass includes all stylistic directions and kinds from Samuel Scheidt to Dmitri Shostakovich, from Dixieland to Bossa Nova. It contains unabashedly classical and “timeless”, serious and entertaining elements. In their concerts the ensemble nurtures and surmounts the division in two kinds of musical styles with professionality and fun: the programs contain arrangements of classicals works as well as adaptations and compositions of musical evergreens which have mostly been arranged and composed specially for German Brass and pay tribute to the typical sound and the technical brilliance of the ensemble. Listening to one of the concerts of German Brass, presented by Klaus Wallendorf of the ensemble with inimitably witty and entertaining comments as well as to one of the many recordings on CD is quite an experience. |
