Notes and Editorial Reviews
THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE CORNET
•
Ole Edvard Antonsen (cnt); Ingar Bergby, cond; Royal Norwegian Navy Band
•
BIS 1598 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 60:48)
CLARKE
The Debutante. The Bride of the Waves.
HÖHNE
Slavische fantasie.
GRIEG
Ved Rondane.
CODE
Zelda.
HOCH
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Nordische fantasie.
HARTMANN
Facilita.
BORG
Sommerstemning.
DINICU
Hora staccato.
SIMON
Willow Echoes.
BULL
Sæterjentens Søndag.
BELLSTEDT
Napoli
“The trumpet is an instrument of sin while the cornet belongs to the angels.” Or so thought Herbert Clarke, the world’s greatest cornet-player, and the person to whom this quote is attributed. What surprised me most about this recording, aside from the superbly engineered Super Audio surround sound, was the commonality found among these composers. I was expecting a large degree of stylistic difference here, and found to my amazement that they all sound as if they could have conceivably been written by the same composer. This is not a slight to the composers or their degree of originality; it is a statement on the universal goals attempted and most often achieved by military bands and their soloists at the period of the turn of the last century.
Even a work like Gregoras Dinicu’s
Hora staccato
sounds Romanian with a touch of, well, Central Park in the bicycle-built-for-two era. Many composers were writing mimicked music of many styles in those days to give their audiences a tour of the world without leaving home, and Clarke and Sousa himself dabbled in this sort of thing. And their music sounds every bit as authentic as the real thing by native composers.
These are all cornet solo pieces, and they are devilishly tricky to play; the cornet was regarded in its day as the premier lyrical brass instrument, and its best practitioners could pull off Paganini-like virtuosity to a breezy fare-thee-well. All of the composers listed in the head note played the instrument, and all were give heavy accolades in their day. None reached quite the level of the legendary Clarke (whose method is still in use today), but if any of them could actually play the music they wrote, it must have been impressive.
Ole Edvard Antonsen has recorded over 60 CDs to this point, and seems to be gearing up for another round all through this year. His sound is sweet and winsome, his technique sans competition. Once long ago the principal trumpet in the Oslo PO, he gave it up in 1987 to pursue a very successful solo career. The Royal Norwegian Navy Band plays like pros. This album, besides being impressive technically, is a boatload of fun, and you won’t for one moment get bored with it. As I mentioned before, the SACD sound is excellent, and other companies should certainly take some lessons from BIS on how to balance the multichannel signals. A fine release.
FANFARE: Steven Ritter
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Caprice Brillante "The Débutante" by Herbert L. Clarke
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1908; USA
Length: 5 Minutes 29 Secs.
2.
Polka brillante "Bride of the waves" by Herbert L. Clarke
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1900; USA
Length: 5 Minutes 38 Secs.
3.
Melodies (12), Op. 33: no 9, At Rundarne by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: 1880; Norway
Length: 2 Minutes 28 Secs.
4.
Zelda by Percy Code
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Length: 6 Minutes 40 Secs.
5.
Facilita by John Hartmann
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: England
Length: 5 Minutes 26 Secs.
6.
Hora staccato by Grigoras Dinicu
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1906; Romania
Length: 1 Minutes 48 Secs.
7.
Willow Echoes by Frank Simon
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: 20th Century
Written: Russia
Length: 4 Minutes 7 Secs.
8.
Napoli Variations by Herman Bellstedt
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: USA
Length: 4 Minutes 16 Secs.
9.
Slavic Fantasy by Carl Höhne
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: 1899
Length: 7 Minutes 25 Secs.
10.
Nordic Fantasy, Op. 20 by Theodor Hoch
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Length: 10 Minutes 39 Secs.
11.
Summer Mood by Oscar Borg
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: Norway
Length: 2 Minutes 14 Secs.
12.
A visit to the mountain pasture: A shepherd girl's sunday by Ole Borneman Bull
Performer:
Ole Edvard Antonsen (Cornet)
Conductor:
Ingar Bergby
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Norwegian Navy Band
Period: Romantic
Written: 1848; Norway
Length: 2 Minutes 30 Secs.
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