Two L’Oiseau-Lyre albums of English brass music from the 17th and 18th centuries – The Royal Brass Music of King James I and English Baroque Trumpet Concertos – newly compiled and remastered and issued on CD for the first time.
With this and several other albums issued in 2019, Eloquence celebrates the art of Thurston Dart, the harpsichordist, conductor and editor who played a leading role in the early-music revival in postwar Britain. After his death in 1971 at the age of just 49, his fellow harpsichordist Igor Kipnis paid fulsome tribute to ‘a man of many parts’, whose 1954 volume on The Interpretation of Music had attained testamentary authority among his fellow musicians, matched by the skill, style and flourish of his many recordings: ‘He was the ideal musicologist-performer.’
In 1960 Dart convened and directed a six-strong ensemble of trumpets and trombones to record a sequence of music written for performance at the court of King James I by a twenty-piece band of sackbuts and cornetts known as the Royal Wind Music. Part-books of their repertoire were edited and in some cases reconstructed by Dart and his colleague Trevor Jones, and the result is a splendid compilation of dances and fanfares by members of the king’s musical retinue including the violist and lutenist ‘Giovanni Coprario’ who, born in London in 1570 as John Cooper, changed his name in the early seventeenth century, doubtless to add foreign lustre to his reputation.
Dart’s ad hoc ensemble was led by the legendary French trumpeter Maurice André who, four years previously, had taken centre-stage to record one of the first concerto albums in his long and distinguished career. The headline name in this trio of ‘English Baroque Trumpet Concertos’ is Jeremiah Clarke, whose successful career came to an abrupt and tragic end in his early 30s with his suicide in 1707. The nine movements of his Suite in D major for trumpet, strings and winds were also reconstructed for this recording, and they include the Trumpet Voluntary (sometimes known as the Prince of Denmark’s March) to which countless brides have walked down the aisle. The names of Richard Mudge and Capel Bond are far less known than they deserve to be: musicians of the English Midlands, they each left hardly more than a single collection of six concertos. In these examples edited by Gerald Finzi, they nonetheless demonstrate high craftsmanship in the Italian style and a fine awareness of the then-modern, ‘galant’ mode.
THE ROYAL BRASS MUSIC OF KING JAMES I
1 SIMPSON Intrada
2 HARDING Almande
3 HOLBORNE Coranto: The Faerie Round
4 LEETHERLAND Pavan
5 GUY Almande No. 13
6 HOLBORNE The Choice
7 BASSANO Fantasia
8 FARNABY Almande
9 HOLBORNE Galliard
10 JOHNSON Almande No. 7
11 HOLBORNE Coranto: As it Fell on Holie Eve
12 COPRARIO Fantasia No. 76
13 FERRABOSCO Almande No. 5
14 DERING Fantasia
15 LUPO Almande
16 BASSANO Pavan No. 16
17 HOLBORNE The Fruit of Love
18 FERRABOSCO Pavan
19 FERRABOSCO Alman
Maurice André, Jean Pirot, trumpets
Maurice Suzan, Henri Arqué, Camille Verdier, Bernard Gallot, trombones
Thurston Dart
ENGLISH BAROQUE TRUMPET MUSIC
20–22 MUDGE Trumpet Concerto No. 1 in D major
23–31 CLARKE Suite in D major
32–34 BOND Trumpet Concerto No. 1 in D major
Maurice André, trumpet
Ensemble Orchestral de L’Oiseau-Lyre
Pierre Colombo
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
Recordings: Paris, France, 24 May 1956 (Mudge, Clarke, Bond); Centre d’enregistrement des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France, February 1958 (Simpson, Harding, Holborne, Leetherland, Guy, Bassano, Farnaby, Johnson, Coprario, Ferrabosco, Dering, Lupo)
Original L’Oiseau-Lyre LP Releases: SOL 60019 (Simpson, Harding, Holborne, Leetherland, Guy, Bassano, Farnaby, Johnson, Coprario, Ferrabosco, Dering, Lupo); OL 50137 (Mudge, Clarke, Bond)
‘In spite of the prevalence of D major, this disc is very enjoyable and has been well prepared and performed.’ Gramophone, July 1957 (English Baroque Trumpet Concertos)
‘The Mudge Concerto […] is a solemn and imposing work […] the Bond, seventeen years later, is only slightly more inclined toward the galant style […] The French players, under Colombo, find some of the tempos a little elusive in the Clarke, but cope very well with the double-dotted rhythms at the openings of both concertos.’ Music and Letters, October 1957 (English Baroque Trumpet Concertos)
‘The direction and playing are expert.’ Stereo Review, July 1961 (Royal Brass Music)
‘If, like me, you find brass choirs irresistible, you should enjoy dipping into this collection.’ High Fidelity, October 1961 (Royal Brass Music)