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 In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of their very first recording, the Allegro Handbell Ensemble is pleased to announce Volume I: Allegro Bronze Edition. The crisp 1977 performance has been digitally remastered and released a special edition compact disc.
Since it's beginnings in the 1960s, the Allegro Handbell Ensemble has produced records, audio cassettes, and compact discs featuring music from it's summer tours and holiday concert series. Volume I set the bar high for the recording series: It was a studio recording which produced recordedings of some of the most complex compositions for handbells ever written—then and now.
One of those works, Donald E. Allured's Suite for Cello and Bells, was commissioned specifically for the Allegro Handbell Ensemble. The work is one of the first original compositions for five octaves of handbells, which, in the 1970s, was an enormous range that most ensembles did not have the facilities, personnel, or equipment to support. The suite is also one of the first works to feature handbells in duet with another instrument, and the cello performance by John Patterson is vibrant and masterful.
In addition to including all of the bands from the original 1977 LP, the Allegro Bronze Edition of Volume I includes a special bonus track featuring another work commissioned for the Allegro Handbell Ensemble in memory of Dwight K. Menard, the group's director who produced Volume I. The work by William A. Payn is titled Elegy, and was performed by the 1998 Allegro Handbell Ensemble.
The Allegro Bronze Edition CD booklet includes all the original text and from the original LP jacket, including the 1977 description of the Allegro Handbell Ensemble, the biography of director Dwight K. Menard, and an article about the group from a 1976 issue of the Colorado Springs Sun.
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