The vibrant enthusiasm of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under its principal conductor Timothy Reynish is captured on this excellent recording.

The disc includes the premiere recording of Blacher’s Divertimento and Toch’s Spiel.

The five composers included on this disc represent an interesting and varied cross-section of German wind band music during the early 1900s.

This is the second disc in Chandos’ on-going journey around the world exploring the windband music of different nations.


Hindemith’s attempts in 1926 to enthuse German military band musicians about contemporary music was not a success; the musical elite disliked the ‘open-air music’, the bandsmen and their conductors disliked what they though to be elitism, so he must have been delighted when, twenty-five years later an émigré in the US, he was asked by the US Army Band for a march. He became so engrossed in the medium that he produced the twenty-minute Symphony in B flat, one of the masterworks for the wind band.

Toch’s Spiel, Op. 39 or ‘Game’ for wind orchestra is scored for a small ensemble of orchestral wind and brass, with optional parts for tenor horn, baritone and two flugelhorns, thus making it playable by orchestra or regular German military band. It begins with a miniature Overture in three parts, which is followed by a bitter-sweet Idyll and a finale that is a piece of sheer high-spirited fun.

Schoenberg’s Theme and Variations, Op. 43a was commissioned by his publisher G. Schirmer. It is not one of his twelve note works and was written with – in his own words – ‘really great pleasure’. It is scored for large forces although the players are treated as soloists, and given plenty of challenge and interest.

Boris Blacher’s Divertimento, Op. 7 was first performed in 1937, a year before he became director of the composition class in Dresden. He was to be forced from the post due to his opposition to Nazi policies.

Hartmann’s Symphonie Concertante, his Symphony No. 5, was originally a Concerto, or Concertino, for trumpet and wind in the early thirties. In 1949, it was revised as Concerto for Wind Ensemble, Double Basses and Two Solo Trumpets, and a further revision added cellos and subsumed the solo parts into the orchestral texture.


The vibrant enthusiasm of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under its principal conductor Timothy Reynish is captured on this excellent recording.

The disc includes the premiere recording of Blacher’s Divertimento and Toch’s Spiel.

The five composers included on this disc represent an interesting and varied cross-section of German wind band music during the early 1900s.

This is the second disc in Chandos’ on-going journey around the world exploring the windband music of different nations.



Hindemith’s attempts in 1926 to enthuse German military band musicians about contemporary music was not a success; the musical elite disliked the ‘open-air music’, the bandsmen and their conductors disliked what they though to be elitism, so he must have been delighted when, twenty-five years later an émigré in the US, he was asked by the US Army Band for a march. He became so engrossed in the medium that he produced the twenty-minute Symphony in B flat, one of the masterworks for the wind band.

Toch’s Spiel, Op. 39 or ‘Game’ for wind orchestra is scored for a small ensemble of orchestral wind and brass, with optional parts for tenor horn, baritone and two flugelhorns, thus making it playable by orchestra or regular German military band. It begins with a miniature Overture in three parts, which is followed by a bitter-sweet Idyll and a finale that is a piece of sheer high-spirited fun.

Schoenberg’s Theme and Variations, Op. 43a was commissioned by his publisher G. Schirmer. It is not one of his twelve note works and was written with – in his own words – ‘really great pleasure’. It is scored for large forces although the players are treated as soloists, and given plenty of challenge and interest.

Boris Blacher’s Divertimento, Op. 7 was first performed in 1937, a year before he became director of the composition class in Dresden. He was to be forced from the post due to his opposition to Nazi policies.

Hartmann’s Symphonie Concertante, his Symphony No. 5, was originally a Concerto, or Concertino, for trumpet and wind in the early thirties. In 1949, it was revised as Concerto for Wind Ensemble, Double Basses and Two Solo Trumpets, and a further revision added cellos and subsumed the solo parts into the orchestral texture.


The vibrant enthusiasm of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under its principal conductor Timothy Reynish is captured on this excellent recording.

The disc includes the premiere recording of Blacher’s Divertimento and Toch’s Spiel.

The five composers included on this disc represent an interesting and varied cross-section of German wind band music during the early 1900s.

This is the second disc in Chandos’ on-going journey around the world exploring the windband music of different nations.


Hindemith’s attempts in 1926 to enthuse German military band musicians about contemporary music was not a success; the musical elite disliked the ‘open-air music’, the bandsmen and their conductors disliked what they though to be eliteism, so he must have been delighted when, twenty-five years later an émigré in the US, he was asked by the US Army Band for a march. He became so engrossed in the medium that he produced the twenty-minute Symphony in B flat, one of the masterworks for the wind band.

Toch’s Spiel, Op. 39 or ‘Game’ for wind orchestra is scored for a small ensemble of orchestral wind and brass, with optional parts for tenor horn, baritone and two flugelhorns, thus making it playable by orchestra or regular German military band. It begins with a miniature Overture in three parts, which is followed by a bitter-sweet Idyll and a finale that is a piece of sheer high-spirited fun.

Schoenberg’s Theme and Variations, Op. 43a was commissioned by his publisher G. Schirmer. It is not one of his twelve note works and was written with – in his own words – ‘really great pleasure’. It is scored for large forces although the players are treated as soloists, and given plenty of challenge and interest.

Boris Blacher’s Divertimento, Op. 7 was first performed in 1937, a year before he became director of the composition class in Dresden. He was to be forced from the post due to his opposition to Nazi policies.

Hartmann’s Symphonie Concertante, his Symphony No. 5, was originally a Concerto, or Concertino, for trumpet and wind in the early thirties. In 1949, it was revised as Concerto for Wind Ensemble, Double Basses and Two Solo Trumpets, and a further revision added cellos and subsumed the solo parts into the orchestral texture.



The vibrant enthusiasm of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under its principal conductor Timothy Reynish is captured on this excellent recording.

The disc includes the premiere recording of Blacher’s Divertimento and Toch’s Spiel.

The five composers included on this disc represent an interesting and varied cross-section of German wind band music during the early 1900s.

This is the second disc in Chandos’ on-going journey around the world exploring the windband music of different nations.



Hindemith’s attempts in 1926 to enthuse German military band musicians about contemporary music was not a success; the musical elite disliked the ‘open-air music’, the bandsmen and their conductors disliked what they though to be eliteism, so he must have been delighted when, twenty-five years later an émigré in the US, he was asked by the US Army Band for a march. He became so engrossed in the medium that he produced the twenty-minute Symphony in B flat, one of the masterworks for the wind band.

Toch’s Spiel, Op. 39 or ‘Game’ for wind orchestra is scored for a small ensemble of orchestral wind and brass, with optional parts for tenor horn, baritone and two flugelhorns, thus making it playable by orchestra or regular German military band. It begins with a miniature Overture in three parts, which is followed by a bitter-sweet Idyll and a finale that is a piece of sheer high-spirited fun.

Schoenberg’s Theme and Variations, Op. 43a was commissioned by his publisher G. Schirmer. It is not one of his twelve note works and was written with – in his own words – ‘really great pleasure’. It is scored for large forces although the players are treated as soloists, and given plenty of challenge and interest.

Boris Blacher’s Divertimento, Op. 7 was first performed in 1937, a year before he became director of the composition class in Dresden. He was to be forced from the post due to his opposition to Nazi policies.

Hartmann’s Symphonie Concertante, his Symphony No. 5, was originally a Concerto, or Concertino, for trumpet and wind in the early thirties. In 1949, it was revised as Concerto for Wind Ensemble, Double Basses and Two Solo Trumpets, and a further revision added cellos and subsumed the solo parts into the orchestral texture.

‘Superb performances here by the RNCM Wind Orchestra…’
‘Reynish and Rundell split the repertoire between them… Both are fine. The quality of sound of the RNCM is especially lovely…’
‘Timothy Reynish has made the RNCM Wind Orchestra leader in its field and the Chandos disc of works by Holst and Vaughan Williams confirms this supremacy.’

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