i cant say much for cycles because i work primarily in lux and yaf, but both yaf and cycles have a tennancy to have almost mirror like feels in direct light when using the glossy material if you dont do some arm bending in nodes. unfortunately as far as i know nodes dont directly effect yaf, but your using cycles and thats not a problem for you. but i think more node work is the key to softening the reflections on top, and also your brass material just needs to be sligthtly more orange, only a couple degrees, and it needs to be slightly more saturated, also increase the roughness, .2-.4 would be my suggested range but i dont know enough about cycles to be sure