• Tracks

In 1980 the question "Where is Sousa's audience today?" gave rise to Keith Brion 's Sousa orchestral concerts. Brion reasoned that in modern America, Sousa's most natural audience was now attending symphony orchestra pops concerts rather than band performances. Next wondering if a symphony orchestra could perform a band concert, he recalled that Sousa had scored more than eighty of his major band compositions for orchestra. In addition, most of the other music used by Sousa was really orchestral music transcribed for band. So Brion's "Sousa at the Symphony" concerts were born. For almost two decades now these programs have been a flourishing attraction on the large circuit of American symphony orchestras that present "pops" concerts. Dozens of orchestras have presented them three times or more. This recording features many of the favorite items heard on these popular concerts. The Overture to the Irish Dragoon and Nymphalin are performed in their original settings. The two humoresques and Song of Grace and Songs of Glory are performed in arrangements by Keith Brion. The marches have been enlarged by Brion from their original Sousa versions (for small theatre orchestra) to full symphony orchestra status. The model for these adaptations has been Sousa's own unpublished concert arrangements for his large symphonic band. Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest symphonic ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at the instance of Milos Ruppeldt and Oskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the sphere of music. Ondrej Lenard was appointed it's conductor in 1970 and in 1977 it's conductor-in-chief, succeeded recently by Robert Stankovsky. The orchestra has given successful concerts both at home and abroad, in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Hong Kong and Japan. For Marco Polo the orchestra has recorded works by Glazunov, Gliere, Miaskovsky and other late romantic composers and film music of Honegger, Bliss, lbert and Khachaturian as well as several volumes of the label's Johann Strauss Edition. Naxos recordings include symphonies and ballets by Tchaikovsky, and symphonies by Berlioz and Saint-Saens. Keith Brion: Conductor Keith Brion has frequently led his Sousa revival concerts with orchestras throughout America. He has also appeared as a symphony conductor in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand. He tours regularly with his own New Sousa Band. His Sousa concerts, like the Strauss evenings which inspired Sousa, consist of familiar light classics and virtuoso vocal and instrumental solos. These programmes are interspersed with Sousa's own marches and orchestral compositions.