Classical Music: Fantasia – Works For Trumpet And Organ

Fantasia – Works for Trumpet and Organ

JS Bach Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565; Adagio, BWV 564 ; Fantasia, BWV 562; Roxanna Panufnik Echo; Johann Ludwig Krebs Fantasias, Krebs-WV 601 and 604; Richard Barnard At the Borders of Sleep; Johann Pachelbel Fugue, P 131; Deborah Pritchard Light Enkindled; Giovanni Battista Martini Sonata al’ Postcommunio, Largo, Toccata; Owain Park Warm, hazy rain

Matilda Lloyd (trumpet), Richard Gowers (organ)
Chandos CHAN 2034
chandos.net

The concept behind this recording is both ingenious and enterprising: pairing baroque masterworks with newly commissioned contemporary pieces for trumpet and organ, performed on the recently refurbished instrument at Essex's Waltham Abbey Church. The venture succeeds admirably, offering fresh perspectives on a familiar repertoire while showcasing a wealth of modern compositional voices.

Lloyd and Gowers open with Will Foster's arrangement of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, a work familiar to any organist. As Gowers notes in his perceptive liner commentary, Foster's arrangement demonstrates considerable imagination in distributing material between the two instruments. The improvisatory texture of the Toccata, with its unusual unison lines, allows intelligent choices about when the trumpet should take precedence, while the complex fugal writing poses particular challenges in balancing the musical hierarchy. The duo's conversational approach to the fugue proves especially engaging, bringing dialogical clarity to Bach's intricate counterpoint.

Contemporary commissions form the disc's backbone, with Lloyd deploying five different types of trumpet across seven keys. Owain Park's Warm Lazy Rain for flugelhorn and organ stands out as particularly evocative. Park's programme note describes envisioning "a person in transit during the summer months, perhaps gazing out of a train window or reminiscing about a leisurely bicycle ride through warm, misty country lanes." The music fulfils this pastoral vision convincingly, with Gowers drawing appropriately atmospheric colours from the Abbey's instrument.

Roxanne Panufnik contributes Echo, a brief but effective piece that appears to suspend temporal flow, while Richard Barnard's At the Borders of Sleep takes inspiration from Edward Thomas's poem Lights Out, opening with material that captures the verse's twilight melancholy. Deborah Pritchard's Light Enkindled provides Lloyd with opportunities to demonstrate both technical prowess and tonal variety, extracting a remarkable spectrum of colours from her trumpet in C.

The baroque selections integrate seamlessly with their contemporary counterparts. A four-movement work by Martini benefits from delicate organ accompaniment that exploits the Abbey's acoustics to fine effect, while Bach's Adagio in A minor from the Toccata, the Adagio and Fugue in C major, and the Fantasia in C minor both emerge with notable distinction. These established masterworks never tire in such accomplished hands, their familiar beauties enhanced by thoughtful interpretation.

This recording represents a welcome addition to the catalogue, successfully bridging historical periods while demonstrating the continued vitality of the trumpet-organ combination in capable hands.