Oh Chandos - what were you thinking?

I don't normally waste my (or a reader's) time with irrelevant releases. But this one caught my eye because it comes from one of my favorite labels, Chandos. But looking at it a little more closely and realizing exactly what it is, I just shake my head as ask, Why? Why record a Sousa Celebration and not use Sousa's original scores? In what universe does anyone need or have any desire to own a collection of Sousa band music (mostly marches) arranged like elevator Musak played by a symphony orchestra? And a British one at that! If you just had to record some Sousa for some reason, couldn't you find an American concert band willing to record this for you?

Just last year, Chandos issued a wonderful collection of band music by Robert Russell Bennett played by the fantastic Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra. What a splendid idea it would have been to follow that one with this Sousa set played by that same group.  But alas, as it turns out, this one goes to top of the current list of "what were they thinking?" releases.