This
is a privately produced disc (to be made available through AMBITUS
in Hamburg in future) highlighting the considerable talents of
two young German musicians, trumpeter Andreas Michel and pianist
Nicola Hollenbach. It features a combination of familiar pieces,
often in unusual arrangements, with some less well known pieces,
and at least one piece, or at least version, previously unrecorded
- Armenian composer Artunian's celebrated Trumpet Concerto
in its arrangement for trumpet and piano. The disc gets off to
a good start with Dokshizer's arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue
- a work so infectious it is difficult not to like in any incarnation
and so it proves here. The chamber sound makes the jazz elements
all the more apparent and I thoroughly enjoyed Michel's and Hollenbach's
interpretation. The same applies to the Ravel Pavane where
the arrangement brings out the soulful nature of the piece, I
almost half expected to hear Miles Davis come in with Time
After Time! However, the rest of the first half of the disc,
while it is very well played, is just a little too salon orientated
for this listener's tastes. The Fibich, Cui and Tchaikovsky pieces
are well written and concise but ultimately come across as being
rather superficial, even in Michel's full-blooded readings. The
Bernstein piece is one of a series of vignettes he wrote for various
brass instruments as tributes to pets of family and friends -
brief and forgettable in this case. The Slavonic Dance
has a bit more substance but still isn't entirely successful.
Things
pick up, however, with the three short but authentic works by
Abraham Geifmann; the Romanze is particularly haunting
and ably demonstrates the narrow dividing line between the saccharine
and the truly affecting. The bittersweet Jewish melodies work
well with the instrumental combination and the trumpet smoulders
nicely before bursting into musical flames in the aforementioned
Arutunian. In between though we have the melancholic Schubert
serenade - again not my cup of tea but very well done. The contrast
between the concerto, albeit in reduced form, and most of the
other music on this disc is stark. Listen to the Cui Oriental
and then this real rather than kitsch exotica. It also gives Andreas
Michel in particular the time and space to demonstrate his technique
and feeling for the music rather better than in some of the shorter
pieces. Whether playing the lyrical interludes or the more percussive
climaxes, the duo mesh seamlessly to create a valid alternative
or rather companion to the full orchestral version. Like the Gershwin,
the Arutunian work adds meat to an otherwise lightweight programme
and gives Rhapsody for Two the feel of a highly accomplished
CD, although one which never really scales the heights of, say,
John Wallace's classic but no longer available trumpet recital
for EMI. I wouldn't want to listen every day but the Gershwin,
Geifmann and Arutunian pieces are well worth a place in your collection.
Neil
Horner
Andrea Michel, trumpet