BRUCE BROUGHTON (b.1945): Concerto for Tuba and Wind Orchestra, DOMINIQUE ROGGEN (b.1948): Concerto grosso in A Minor for Tuba, Strings and Continuo, JORGE SALGUEIRO (b.1969): Concerto for Tuba and Brass Band, Op. 139, JULIUS JACOBSEN (1915-1990): Tuba Buffo for Solo Tuba, JULIEN-FRANÇOIS ZBINDEN (b.1917): Solissimo V for Solo Tuba, PABLO SARASATE (1844-1908): Zigeunerweisen for Tuba and Strings (arr. Roggen).

Description: This hugely enjoyable disc won't do much to dispel the tuba's image as the buffoon of the orchestra, but it does contain a widely varied program of virtuoso music for this mellifluous and flexible instrument, full of hair-raising 'I didn't know you could even do that on a tuba' moments. Roggen's piece is one of a series of authentic-sounding baroque concerti for inappropriate combinations of instruments. His Sarasate transcription is an equally sophisticated and successful joke in the same vein. Broughton's concerto is less Hoffnungesque, but still on the lighter side, a lively little divertimento in concerto form, with a lovely, songlike slow movement. The Jacobsen is a virtuosic showpiece that explores the instrument's technical and expressive capabilities in a kaleidoscopic combination of divergent moods; Zbinden's solo piece does much the same thing, beginning in the style of a serious technical étude, but ending in swinging jazz style. Salgueiro's five-movement work plays at being a serious neo-romantic concerto with a dramatic first movement and a soulful, songlike, suspiciously over the top slow one, but is constantly subverted by the humorous intrusion of inventive effects offering terrifying technical challenges to the soloist (the out-of-register playing and multiphonic effects in the cadenza are gloriously ridiculous). Daniel Schädeli (tuba), Bern Symphony Orchestra, Swiss Army Symphonic Wind Orchestra, Swiss Army Brass Band; Dominique Roggen.