Search - Henry Brant, Elliot Carter, Gerard Schwarz :: New Music for Trumpet

Schwarz is a trumpet virtuoso of the highest order!

Scott Taylor | 07/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gerard Schwarz is now conductor of the Seattle Symphony, but he was for many years one of the greatest trumpet virtuosos this country has known. He served as Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and the American Brass Quintet and has left behind brilliant recordings such as this. A champion of contemporary music, Schwarz performs these fiendishly difficult works with much skill and ease. His reading of the Whittenburg Polyphony is the standard for that piece, as is the case for the Moryl. The Carter, one of the composer's more introspective works, is interpretated beautifully in its original and alternate versions. This disc is a must for fans of trumpet music and highly recommended for those who appreciate contemporary music! Although the music is quite esoteric, it can be enjoyed by all those who enjoy hearing amazing interpretations of works composed to stretch the abilities of even the greatest virtuosos."

Nothing very interesting here, even if Schwarz is quite impr

Discophage | France | 04/05/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I had great anticipations with this disc, and therefore am all the more disappointed.



I've expressed in numerous reviews my great enthusiasm for the wonderfully original and outlandishly provocative music of Henry Brant (who recently passed away). My first introduction was in fact another CD from the same label, Phoenix, with the incredible orchestral piece "Kingdom Come" and the composition with tape "Machinations" (see my review of Kingdom Come/Machinations). Since then I've listened to everything I could find of Brant, including the valuable nine volumes of the ongoing Innova series. So I was eager to hear this Trumpet Concerto.



But it is in fact deceptive. Though "revised" in 1970 (with an new orchestration involving the rare line-up of flute, 4 clarinets, 2 bass clarinets, tuba and percussion), it is an early work, from 1941: Brant before Brant, before he turned into the champion of spatial music and a firebrand experimentalist. The Concerto then is amusing, perky, jesting, New-Orleans-jazzy, Copacabana crooning and dreamy at times, reminiscent of Stravinsky's Concertino and, in the second movement, of Copland at his most pastoral - but it is not very original, inventive, profound or illuminating. This is not the music that makes me rave about Henry Brant.



The rest is quick heard, quick forgotten. His 1:40-minute Canon for Three, written in homage to Stravinsky (given here in two versions, one with three trumpets with different mutes and the other with flugelhorn, cornet and trumpet) isn't Elliott Carter's most significant composition. It is a short, stern canon. Stefan Wolpe's almost as short (2:17) "Solo Piece" sounds much the same, except slightly more agitated and not canonic. Charles Whittenberg's "Polyphony" and Richard Moryl's "Salvos" again sound much alike (although the latter is more inventive): catalogs of trumpet effects and playing techniques, probably more interesting as etudes in contemporary virtuosity than as listening experiences.



Gerard Schwarz plays with stupendous virtuosity. If I wanted to be nasty, I'd comment that it shows how much the music world has lost when he turned into a conductor. But I won't say it, even for the pleasure of the "bon mot", because I don't believe it: Schwarz has done fine service to American music when he turned a conductor, and the music world has gained a lot from his move.



As was Phoenix's custom with their early releases, this is a straight reissue from an LP, short timing and all (indicated nowhere on the disc's covers, of course): 42-minutes. Good sound.

"

Not recommended

D. Jack Elliot | Omaha, Nebraska | 09/11/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am a trumpet player, and a great admirer of Gerard Schwarz, but I do not recommend this album.



I do not think highly of the repertoire here, for one thing. Brandt's piece seems a collection of random, unrelated compositional ideas; and this might not present such a difficulty were they not also rather trite. The only other even somewhat lengthy composition here is the Salvos, by Richard Moryl, which seems to be nothing more than an exercise in repeatedly out-weirding you. The rest of the works are miniatures, the only interesting one being the Canon by Elliot Carter. Even that's only a minute and a half long, however (though it appears twice on the program), and the other compositions I do not find the least bit compelling.



Schwarz's playing is able enough, but both Wynton Marsalis and Hakan Hardenberger play circles around him in hard-for-the-sake-of-hard repertoire, such as the Brant and Moryl. In short, this is boring music, and there are much better recorded demonstrations of Modernist trumpet virtuosity available."