Boehme and Lutoslawski

Oskar Böhme (1870-1938) composed the Trompetensextett, Op. 30 in Eb minor around 1906. Written for Cornet, two trumpets, Bass trumpet (Altohorn), Trombone (Tenorhorn) and Tuba (Bariton). Böhme was born in Dresden and in 1897, he moved to St. Petersburg and played in the Mariinsky Theatre orchestra.

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) was a Polish composer and one of the most famous European composers of the 20th century.  He composed Mini Overture in 1982 and dedicated it to Ursula and Philip Jones, of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, for Ursula's 50th birthday.

From www.lutoslawski.org:

The Mini Overture was originally to be the first piece in a suite ending in a Galop. The impulse for the creation of the Mini Overture (defined by Witold Lutosławski as a "small caricature of an overture") was provided by the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Ursula Jones, wife of Philip Jones.

The barely three-minute composition, dedicated to Walter Strebi, who was the initiator of a project for a collection of pieces for this type of ensemble, does not occupy in Lutosławski's output a place as important as the Epitaph for oboe or Grave for cello. Rather, its rank could perhaps be compared to that of Slides or the two Fanfares - one for Cambridge University and the other for Lancaster University. Yet it has an irresistible charm, which clearly points to the Neoclassical aesthetic of a grotesque scherzo. Short ‘pugnacious' motives seem to resound with the pastiche idioms of Stravinsky from the Histoire du soldat, and where the instruments play unisono or where they resound with lively and regular chords, it would be difficult to recognize the hand of Lutosławski if not told what is being played. Why is that so? This is because here Lutosławski does not apply his special earmark - the technique of aleatoric counterpoint, which in his music from the 80s plays an ever lesser role. A special characteristic of this work is also the fact that it exhibits a particular contrariness: the sunny shine left by the French Neoclassicism is obtained with a construction based on two markedly contrasting 12-tone series which create the outline of sonata form. Thus, in the score composed of three continuously played segments we are dealing with something that is trifling and even entertaining, but also full of finesse and intelligence, like a smartly constructed toy.