JEAN BALISSAT (1936-2007): Capriccio for Euphonium and Chamber Orchestra, DOMINIQUE ROGGEN (b.1948): Concerto in B Flat for Euphonium, Strings and Basso Continuo, with Euphonium transcriptions of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto, K.191 and the Weber Bassoon Concerto, Op. 75.

Description: So, Naxos figures that Swiss euphonium concertos won't sell in the U.S. Maybe, but the two Swiss works are good and different: Roggen as a composer uses baroque forms and syntax and his nine-minute concerto is part of a series of what he calls "anachronistic concertos" in which later-developed instruments get roles in baroque music. Harmless fun for the listener and it must be great fun for a euphonium player to be able to play a baroque work which isn't a transcription. Balissat's is in a more modern idiom and is a commission for the soloist here. Approchable and broadly tonal, it may even appeal to non-euphonium fans. Roland Fröscher (euphonium), Cappella Istropolitana; Dominique Roggen.