From a Serenus stereo record, music by the Czech-American composer/conductor Vaclav Nehlybel. Supervised in Rome by composer/conductor Nicolas Flagello, we have Nehlybel's Trio for Brass, Slavic March, Brass Piano Quartet, Impromptus for Six Woodwinds and Three Intradas for Brass.
I don't think there is a wind player who has not played or heard of a work by Vaclav Nehlybel. A prolific composer, he tended to specialize in works for student ensembles and during his lifetime, was one of the most sought after composers for commission. Born in Czechoslovakia, he allied himself with the West following the second world war, first becoming a director at Radio Free Europe and then emigrating to the US where he taught, composed, and conducted ensembles nationwide.
I'll admit that the quality of Nehlybel's writing can be uneven and it is hard to peg him into a school though at least I can hear traces of Janacek in his works. Like Hindemith, Nehlybel wrote convincingly, for pretty much any and all combinations of instruments, and that, I think, is significant and admirable. The works on this record are lively, imaginative and in cases like the intradas, hark back across the centuries.
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