Discover Beethoven through the remarkable sound world of the 19th-century Swedish brass ensemble, as the Prince Regent’s Band celebrates the launch of its new Beethoven for Brass recording.

At the heart of the project is the repertoire of the Swedish Livregementets dragonmusikkår – the band of the Life Regiment Dragoon Corps. Its surviving manuscripts reveal how military musicians brought Beethoven’s music to new audiences, transforming symphonies, opera arias and chamber works for the distinctive colours and capabilities of their brass instruments.

Working with arrangements by the band’s musical directors, Carl Braun and Frans Carl Preumayr, PRB brings this extraordinary repertoire back to life on an array of historical instruments. Keyed bugles, natural horns and trumpets, and trombones demonstrate the ingenious ways musicians achieved chromatic flexibility before the widespread adoption of valves, while Preumayr’s Egmont Overture reveals the emerging possibilities of valved brass.

The programme also ventures beyond the Swedish collection to 19th-century Hanover, with Julius Viktor Gerold’s remarkable arrangement of Beethoven’s First Symphony for brass ensemble.

This is a celebration of rediscovery, virtuosity and musical ingenuity – exploring how military bandmasters reshaped Beethoven for their own players, instruments and audiences. This is Beethoven not just for brass, but through brass.