Gerard Schwarz Performs New Music For Trumpet: Henry Brant (Concerto for Trumpet and Nine Instruments, 1941 revised 1970), Elliott Carter (Canon for Three, 1971, version for three trumpets, version with flügelhorn cornet and trumpet), Richard Moryl (Salvos, 1969), Charles Whittenberg (Polyphony, 1965), Stefan Wolpe (Solo Piece, 1966). Phoenix PHCD 115 (1990) barcode 094629301150
Nothing very interesting here, even if Schwarz is quite impressive
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 5 April 2009
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 PHCD 127, link will open new tab). 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. Elliott Carter’s 1:40 minute Canon for Three, written in memory of Stravinsky (given here in two versions, one with three trumpets with different mutes and the other with flügelhorn, cornet and trumpet) isn’t the composer’s most significant work. 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 from the label Desto, short timing and all (indicated nowhere on the disc’s covers, of course): 42-minutes. Good sound.
