A well-chosen title
for a well researched and performed
disc. The engine of the disc is the
trumpet or cornet morceau or the Parisian
conservatoire test piece, both of which
demand virtuosity and surety of phrasing.
Many fall into the two sectional plan
with a lyric opening section followed
by a declamatory finale but all make
cogent and strong demands.
Many of the composers
here are brass specialists, others –
Ropartz, Enescu - are much better known
and whose forays into the field were
limited. Whether written for trumpet
or cornet none of these pieces lasts
more than seven minutes and this concision
adds to their effective realisation.
Charlier’s Solo has
a clipped military air in its second
part whilst Thomé, composer of
the once ubiquitous café fiddler’s
favourite Simple Aveu, throws
off his discreet shackles for a robust,
fugal, confident Fantaisie. Written
for the fatter sounding cornet it belies
its rather wispy title. Pennequin opens
with a fanfare-like call to arms and
his "multi-movement" Morceau
requires some strong lips in the final
section – notably in the stentorian
declamation of the final cadences.
Turn to Ropartz of
course and you encounter a different
kind of brass writing, one informed
by modality, by depth in the andante
section and by an equally confident
brassy heroic conclusion – it makes
for a real Andante and Allegro, one
that shows the bisected nature of almost
all these pieces with honest explicitness.
Balay wrote a similarly titled work
but it’s very much par for the course
and not a patch on Ropartz.
Alexandre Georges contributes
a rather charming, vaguely impressionist/romantic
reminiscence which bears up reasonably
against the very different Enescu Légende
with its tensile lyricism. Pares contributes
several pieces – his Premier Solo has
wit and brash confidence and Crepuscule
has a quiescent quality not often encountered
in this repertoire and one that makes
for a fine close to the disc.
The Friedrich-Duis
team is a formidable one; they ease
over the rather binary objectivity of
so many of these test and salon pieces
and vest the more questing ones with
no little distinction. Decent notes
as well and attractive recording quality.
Not to be taken all at one sitting,
certainly, but to be enjoyed one morceau
at a time.
Jonathan Woolf