Interview, Septura on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker

Brass septet Septura – self-confessed "musical kleptomaniacs" – have been adapting a wide range of repertoire for their ensemble over the years, with a series of albums released recently demonstrating their remarkable aptitude for arrangement in repertoire ranging from the Italian Renaissance to the USSR.

Their latest release sees them turn to a beloved centrepiece of Christmas - Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker. Interlaced with Derek Jacobi's delightful reading of the fairytale itself are Septura's adaptations of the music, with the full sonic variety of their ensemble on display as they slip effortlessly between styles with the poise of true ballerini.

I spoke to Septura's Simon Cox and Matthew Knight about this joyously festive recording...

Septura have been releasing albums for a few years now – inevitably featuring a large proportion of arrangements and transcriptions, as the existing brass septet repertoire is limited. How did the group first form – and how did you first come to settle on that unique instrumentation?

(SC): Like most brass players I followed the path of the orchestral musician throughout my studies and the early part of my career, as that’s where most of our professional opportunities lie. However I quickly found myself craving the greater involvement of chamber music. I’d never particularly enjoyed playing in the better-established brass quintets or dectets, finding them to be either too small or large, and lacking the ability to produce the incredibly expressive sound that the orchestral brass section (or choir) of three trumpets, three trombones and tuba can generate. I decided in fact that this grouping would be the perfect medium for serious brass chamber music – able to create a truly blended sound with a great deal of variety when required, but also a good size in terms of managing stamina (brass players need plenty of rests to stop our lips getting too swollen!) The group formed off the back of this decision – most of us studied at the same time and had worked together for several years. Five years ago we launched the group with our first CD release and concerts, and we haven’t looked back since.

You mention in the liner notes to this album that your aim is to “re-cast the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium”. How and why do you think brass groups came to be relegated to the sidelines in most people’s minds for eleven months of the year?

(MK): Brass instruments do have a rather chequered history. There have been noticeable high points – think of the fantastic brass writing of Gabrieli for the brass players in St Mark’s in Venice, for example. But in the nineteenth century brass players were relegated to the heavy-lifting roles at the back of the symphony orchestra, or the ceremonial functions of brass bands (not least those on the street at Christmas). Chamber music, in which sheer power and volume was less of a priority, was left to the more refined instruments – strings, piano, singers. Our belief has always been that with modern equipment (and modern players), brass instruments as capable as any others of playing profound and moving chamber music. In fact, the unique sound of brass can move people in a way that no other instruments can. And so the basis of our project is to redress the balance – re-imagining the great music of the past to create a counterfactual history of brass chamber music.

Your previous albums have been selections of repertoire from a particular time and place – Romantic Germany, for instance, or the Renaissance in southern Europe – rather than complete works. Where did the idea first come from to rework Tchaikovsky’s spellbinding Christmas ballet for brass septet?

(MK): We have a great selection of Christmas repertoire from our previous album Christmas with Septura. But for our Christmas concerts we really wanted a substantial piece of music for the second half. Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece The Nutcracker seemed like the perfect fit. I have always loved this piece, especially the incredible music of Act 1, which is sadly not as well known as the Act 2 music that makes up most of the famous orchestral suite. The magical story of The Nutcracker is the perfect inspiration for Tchaikovsky’s musical genius, and the narration (performed with suitable aplomb on our recording by Sir Derek Jacobi) makes this recording completely accessible for people of all ages (even those who might not think that they like serious brass chamber music!). Of course, the most important consideration for any transcription is that it works well for brass – we want our arrangements to sound as if they are original pieces for brass septet. The Nutcracker just seems to fit our group, musically and technically, like a glove, and we really think it casts this familiar music in a new and intriguing light.

This Tchaikovsky album depends in no small part on yourselves as arrangers; when you’re putting a programme together does most of the arranging work fall to these two stalwarts, or do you draw on (or even commission) arrangements by other people?

(SC): Just about all of the group’s arrangements are produced by me and Matthew. We’ve worked closely over several years on a unified approach – we often arrange substantial works together (as in the case of The Nutcracker), and we always thoroughly critique each other’s work, and make adjustments before beginning the rehearsal process. The players are now familiar with our style and approach – for example what we mean by certain articulations and expressions – and this means we’re able to achieve the desired artistic results quickly and efficiently – essential in the fast-paced world of London music making.

How did you approach the task of re-scoring the orchestration for the sonorities available to you? Are there any direct equivalents where one instrument stands in for another, or was it not quite so simple?

(SC): Our starting point was actually the version for solo piano – this demonstrated to us that a truly convincing version of the work would be possible with chamber forces, and was a great basis for the septet version. From there we looked to the orchestral score to see which colours we could incorporate. This was the first time we’d arranged music originally written for symphony orchestra (previously we’ve tended to focus on smaller forces such as choir, string quartet etc.) so the possibilities of the septet were really pushed to the limit. Fortunately we have a number of mutes available to us which completely change the sounds our instruments make, so this allowed us to capture a huge amount of the detail of Tchaikovsky’s score. All of us needed to take on a variety of instrumental roles to make all this work – at one point the tuba needs to pretend to be a harp!