Infinite Brass

It was in the mid-19th century, during early industrialisation, that the very first brass bands emerged in England’s coal-mining areas. Playing music was a form of entertainment for the miners, but specifically playing brass instruments on an intensive basis was considered a potential prophylactic against the lung damage to which they were susceptible. It didn’t take long for official work bands to be formed that also served to advertise the mines and attract new workers.

On 27 December 2026, the brass band of the Ensemble Classique will be performing here at the Gotthard. They naturally don’t work in an English coalmine – but they’re all still passionate musicians. Just like the brass bands in the early days, this ensemble plays arrangements of themes from well-known music theatre works – in this case, from operas such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute or from musicals such as Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. But their repertoire extends far beyond medleys of popular melodies and ranges from the Renaissance to the present day.

The Ensemble Classique will also be performing Tomaso Albinoni’s Trumpet Concerto, old French dances by Claude Gervaise, and a Ballet Classique comprising a medley of works by Manuel de Falla and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in a brilliant, glittering arrangement for brass. In contrast, Winfried Roch’s European Fanfare and Christoph von Reitzenstein’s Festliche Bläsermusik (“Festive wind music”) are both original compositions that make use of the full spectrum of expression offered by the brass section.

Works by Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington and Fats Waller then bring us into the 20th century to reveal many different facets of American music. Excerpts from Bernstein’s Mass and his West Side Story bring together sacred, theatrical and popular forms of expression. Classics by Ellington such as Solitude or It Don’t Mean a Thing epitomise the elegance and rhythmic precision of jazz, while Waller’s Lounging at the Waldorf captures its playful lightness of being. So over the course of a single evening, our audience will find themselves transported from the rough and ready origins of the brass band to the elegance of the concert hall in what promises to be a festive celebration of the richness of brass for everyone who is either already a fan, or would like to become one.