WGBH Radio WGBH Radio theclassicalstation.org

Voices Of Trumpets And Organ

Torelli / Hovhaness / Pearson / Tison / Schilling
Release Date: 04/18/2012 
Label:  Crystal   Catalog #: 661   Spars Code: n/a 
Composer:  Giuseppe Torelli,  Alan Hovhaness,  Hans Ludwig Schilling,  Daniel Pinkham,   ... 
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich,  Byron Pearson,  Donald R. Tison
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 11 Mins. 

Special Order: If we cannot ship this title in 45 days, your order will be cancelled and you will be notified via email.  

Notes and Editorial Reviews



VOICES OF TRUMPETS AND ORGAN • Byron Pearson, Donald R. Tison (tpt); Arthur Vidrich (org) • CRYSTAL CD661 (71:22)


Selections by TORELLI, HOVHANESS, SCHILLING, PINKHAM, LANGLAIS, GERVAIS, VALENTE, TOMASI, PLOG, MANFREDINI


This anthology of short pieces for trumpet or pair of trumpets, some played unaccompanied but most with organ, combines the contents of two LPs originally released in 1980 and 1982. The repertoire is drawn from three eras: the Renaissance, Read more the Baroque, and the 20th century.


Lasting only about a minute each, the four Renaissance dances by Claude Gervais and the five-minute Lo Ballo del’Intorcia of Antonio Valente—the former for unspecified instruments as was customary at the time, the latter arranged from a solo harpsichord original—are all brief, delightful entertainments. The four-movement sonata of Giuseppe Torelli—its second movement scored for organ only—and the three-movement sonata of Francesco Manfredini—time out at slightly less than six and seven minutes, respectively. Both are staples of the trumpet repertoire.


Jumping forward some 250 years, the Prayer of St. Gregory of Alan Hovhaness, excerpted from his 1946 opera Etchmiadzin , is appropriately slow-moving, floating, and ethereal, as befits its subject. The 1967 Canzona of Hans Ludwig Schilling is a fine piece, based on the Lutheran Easter chorale Christ is Arisen ; its harmonies, if not its melodic contours, recall Paul Hindemith. A hymn-like opening is succeeded by a more rapid middle movement constructed in an A-B-A pattern, which begins with boldly flowing lines of 16th notes, subsides to a quietly meditative central section with muted trumpet and sustained organ harmonies, and then returns to an abridged reprise of the opening section. The third movement completes the cyclic structure by returning to the mood of the opening movement.


Other Voices of Daniel Pinkham, composed in 1971 and scored for trumpet, organ, and electronic soundtrack, is the most stylistically advanced work on this disc. Its content was inspired by Revelation 8:13, in which an angel warns of the woes to be unleashed upon the earth by three other angels with trumpets. Fanfare-like motifs for the trumpet are overlaid upon jittery, neurotic organ voicings. About halfway through, the electronic sound effects are introduced. The whole thing sounds like the hackneyed musical accompaniment to a Grade B sci-fi or horror film from the 1950s and is of little value.


Of the two Jean Langlais chorale preludes featured here, the one on From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee is the more substantial, being more than three times as long as the one on A Mighty Fortress. The Sonatine is the most substantive work on this disc. Its three movements (Allegro, Andantino, Mouvement perpetuel) last slightly more than 12 minutes, with extensive use made of a muted trumpet in its middle movement. All three works are well crafted in an early 20th-century French idiom akin to Albert Roussel, in which chattering brilliance alternates with flowing melodic lines.


The Semaine sainte à Cüzco (Holy Week at Cüzco) of Henri Tomasi was composed for the renowned trumpet virtuoso Maurice André in 1963. It is stylistically akin to the Langlais Sonatine, including its use of muted trumpet, but somewhat more dissonant in its harmonies. Transcribed from its original scoring for trumpet, strings, and timpani, it contrasts (how is not specified) the pagan rites of the Incan capital city with the Spanish celebration of the Christian Good Friday procession. Anthony Plog is a well-known trumpeter and composer of brass music; his brief Fanfare is energetic and engaging.


Byron Pearson and Donald R. Tison were both members of the trumpet sections of the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony, Tison being the longtime principal trumpeter of the latter. Pearson was also a member of the St. Louis Symphony and a professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Organist Arthur Vidrich, who is legally blind, became the first such student to earn the D.M.A. degree at the University of Michigan. All of the performances here are first-rate; the recorded acoustic of the First Baptist Church in Detroit is spacious and resonant. If you are a fancier of the trumpet repertoire, this disc will repay your interest in it.


FANFARE: James A. Altena
Read less

Works on This Recording

1.
Sinfonia con tromba in D major, G 8 by Giuseppe Torelli
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: Baroque 
Written: Italy 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 5 Minutes 5 Secs. 
2.
Prayer of St Gregory, Op. 62b by Alan Hovhaness
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1946; USA 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 5 Minutes 48 Secs. 
3.
Canzona Über "Christ ist Erstanden" by Hans Ludwig Schilling
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: Modern 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 7 Minutes 38 Secs. 
4.
The Other Voices of the Trumpet, for trumpet & organ by Daniel Pinkham
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 8 Minutes 38 Secs. 
5.
Work(s): Dances from the French Renaissance. Pavane by Claude Gervaise
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: France 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 0 Minutes 53 Secs. 
6.
Work(s): Dances from the French Renaissance. Branle gai by Claude Gervaise
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: France 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 1 Minutes 2 Secs. 
7.
Work(s): Dances from the French Renaissance. Branle simple by Claude Gervaise
Performer:  Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet), Arthur Vidrich (Organ)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: France 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 1 Minutes 1 Secs. 
8.
Work(s): Dances from the French Renaissance. Allemande by Claude Gervaise
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: France 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 1 Minutes 6 Secs. 
9.
Ballo dell'Intorcia by Antonio Valente
Performer:  Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet), Arthur Vidrich (Organ)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century; Italy 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 5 Minutes 7 Secs. 
10.
Semaine sainte ŕ Cuzco by Henri Tomasi
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1962; France 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 6 Minutes 40 Secs. 
11.
Fanfare for 2 trumpets by Anthony Plog
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet)
Period: Modern 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 1 Minutes 49 Secs. 
12.
Concerto for 2 Trumpets in D major by Francesco Manfredini
Performer:  Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Donald R. Tison (Trumpet), Arthur Vidrich (Organ)
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1711; Italy 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 6 Minutes 7 Secs. 
13.
Two Chorale Preludes: From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee by Jean Langlais
Performer:  Arthur Vidrich (Organ), Byron Pearson (Trumpet)
Period: Modern 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 5 Minutes 1 Secs. 
14.
Two Chorale Preludes: A Mighty Fortress is Our God by Jean Langlais
Performer:  Byron Pearson (Trumpet), Arthur Vidrich (Organ)
Period: Modern 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 1 Minutes 39 Secs. 
15.
Sonatina for trumpet & piano by Jean Langlais
Performer:  Donald R. Tison (Trumpet), Arthur Vidrich (Organ)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1978 
 Venue:  Brookwood Studios 
Length: 12 Minutes 13 Secs. 

Customer Reviews

Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
Review This Title Share on Facebook