Trumpet Renaissance = HARRISON BIRTWISTLE: Endless Parade; CHRISTIAN JOST: Pieta; KURT ROGER: Concerto Grosso No. 1, Op. 27; ALEXANDER ARUTIUNIAN: Trumpet Concerto – Philippe Schartz, trumpet/ BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Jac van Steen, conductor – Chandos 10562, 73:02 *** [Distr. by Naxos]:
The title of the disc reflects what the notes consider to be the relative ignorance of the trumpet repertory by most composers until the twentieth century, presenting us with some of the more enlightened works of the period. Kurt Roger, a Viennese artist who moved during the Nazi period to America, then to Ireland, then back to Austria again, wrote a wonderfully apt neo-classical work that shows off the instrument to good effect. The famous Arutiunian concerto has always seemed somewhat bombastic with little substance to me; however, Schartz’s performance is easily the liveliest and most energetic I have come across in some time. It renews interest in the work for me and I will keep this disc around for it alone.
The other pieces I fear are less successful. Harrison Birtwistle’s compositions usally leave me cold due to their aggravating and caustic nature, almost anti-music in many cases that attempts to make ugliness into a virtue. He doesn’t disappoint here; I find little attractive in this work, so representative of the British school of chalk on blackboard, and here Mr. Schartz’s trumpet sounds stretched also, with some barely hit notes and a pinched tone that is not representative of what I have heard from him before. The Jost piece is mildly interesting in its combined allusions to piety and jazz influences, but lacks connecting glue—the piece flows in a way that makes it hard to make sense of the whole.
Chandos has given all concerned terrific sound, with the BBC Welshman and women particularly coming across with adamantine authority in their pack-a-wallop auditory presentation. But my recommendation has to be tepid because of the above-mentioned issues.
— Steven Ritter
