"Open Minded" presented in eurowinds - the european trade magazine for brass players (...) The first CD, "Take One", released in 2013, focused on film music; the second CD, "Open Minded", follows on from this, but broadens the perspective considerably, as the title suggests. What remains is the concentrated power and incredible energy with which the young group makes music. Trumpet legend Hans Gansch put it this way: "When I heard the 'Vienna Brass Connection' for the first time, my mouth was left open and my ears were amazed." That's saying something!
Against this background, “Godspeed!” by Stephen Melillo, which starts with youthful vigor and irrepressible energy, is an ideal introduction to the CD “Open Minded”. Their name says it all: The seven titles testify to the ensemble's cosmopolitan, unprejudiced, unbiased and open-minded attitude to music. Most of the arrangements come from ensemble members and are due to the extraordinary line-up of six trumpets, four viennese horns, five trombones, two tubas and three
percussionists.
This also applies to the theme tune for the film “Superman” (arranged by trombonist Raphael Stieger) and the soundtrack excerpts from “How to train your Dragon” (like “Godspeed!” arranged by drummer Patrick Prammer), which act as links to the debut CD may apply. “mission@turan.imp”, one of the main works on the recording, is also inspired by film music. Leonhard Paul, known as the trombonist with "Mnozil Brass", crosses boundaries in the work written especially for the CD, as he combines music from the film "Mission Impossible 5", which was largely shot in Vienna, with a cross-section of Puccini's opera "Turandot" - without The aria “Nessun Dorma”, sung by tenor Vincent Schirrmacher, is of course not possible.
The combination in the “Carmen” fantasy, which was also arranged specifically for the Connection by horn player Manuel Egger, is at least as adventurous: having a solo string instrument (the violinist Marie-Christine Klettner) accompanied by a large brass ensemble requires a lot Courage and - even more than other pieces on the recording - a conductor: Johannes Kafka at the podium always knows how to dose the sound appropriately in the seven tracks; sometimes as powerful as a large orchestra, sometimes as delicate as chamber music. Egger also convincingly translated the “O Magnum Mysterium,” originally written for choir by the American Morten Lauridsen in 1994, for the wind instrumentation. And during Elton John's "Don't let the sun go down" even recording manager and exceptional trumpeter Lorenz Raab takes up the flugelhorn for a beautiful solo. This was by no means planned and is a sign of great musical openness in which only one thing counts: the moment that the CD captures permanently.
Daniel Gramespacher
eurowinds · July/August 2018