Festive Overture by Dmitri Schostakovitch (1906-1975) - Arranged for Brass Ensemble by Daniel Drage.

This piece was written for entirely official purposes as a piece of pure public propaganda on the occasion of a celebration of the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution, but it is so vivacious and brilliant an orchestral firework that it has found a secure place in the international repertoire. The clear model is Glinka’s wonderful overture to his opera ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’, which combines astonishing orchestral virtuosity and death-defying speed with instantly catchy melodies. Shostakovich, who actually composed his piece at preposterous speed (supposedly in a few hours, although this is probably only an anecdote) and was said to have laughed at its subsequent success, uses and abuses his Glinka model with extraordinary and sarcastic brilliance, speeding the fast up even faster so that a large-scale symphony orchestra begins to race around like the ridiculous accompaniment to a cartoon-film of the Tom-and-Jerry kind.

This product is available for digital download only - the item includes :

• Score (65 pages)
• Piccolo Trumpet part in Bb
• 2 Cornet parts in Bb
• 3 Trumpet parts in Bb
• 2 Horn parts in F
• 2 Tenor trombone parts in tenor clef
• Bass trombone part in bass clef
• Euphonium in treble clef
• 2 Tuba parts in bass clef
• Timpani part
• 2 Percussion parts