Rimsky-Korsakov: Quintet in B-flat, Op. 20 - Jésus Maria Sanromá, piano; Members of the Boston Woodwind Quintet - Janácek: Capriccio - Leonid Hambro, piano; The Boston Brass Ensemble/James Pappoutsak...

GSC018DL (MONO) - Rimsky-Korsakov: Quintet in B-flat, Op. 20 - Jésus Maria Sanromá, piano;  Members of the Boston Woodwind Quintet - Janácek: Capriccio - Leonid Hambro, piano; The Boston Brass Ensemble/James Pappoutsakis, flute/piccolo/Erin Simon, conductor - An unusual collection of two seldom-heard pieces, from a rare mono LP.  R-K's youthful Quintet from 1876 is tuneful, well-constructed, and was considered the work that announced the end of his apprenticeship as a composer. Puerto Rican pianist Jesús María Sanromá is joined with members of the Boston Woodwind Quintet in a spirtied run-through, recorded in a very reverberant acoustic (no venue is listed). Janácek's  Capriccio of 1926  is a magically strange work, containing a quality of starkness and  lack of artifice. There is a craggy beauty to this work, aptly realized by American pianist Leonid Hambro (perhaps best known as Victor Borge's sidekick in Borge's shows from 1961 to 1970) and the Boston Brass Ensemble