CONCERT REVIEW: THE EVOLUTION OF THE TROMBONE

CD REVIEWREVIEWAugust 21st saw a visit to Swanage in Dorset from not one but two spectacular trombone quartets and for not one but two spectacular occasions: a workshop during the day and an evening concert entitled The Evolution of the Trombone. Both events took place in St Mary’s BY GARY AUSTIN The Evolution of the Trombone CONCERT Parish Church and were part of the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival, this year slightly reduced due to covid. The Concert Trombone Quartette (CTQ) consists of Sue Addison, Emily White, Miguel Tantos and Adrian France, and features the bass voice of Robert MacDonald. They lean towards instruments and repertoire from earlier periods and came armed with sackbuts and plenty of 19th Century ‘pea shooters’ and G bass trombones. Sue even had a slide trumpet (more about that later). I can only presume they all drive cars with large boots. Studio 5 (St5) are the new kids on the block: Emma Bassett, Matthew Lewis, Tom Berry and James Buckle. Their name comes from the room in which the original line-up rehearsed at Wells Cathedral School, though I believe that Matthew and Tom are more recent members. James is a local lad made good and it was great to see him back on his home turf. I must declare an interest here as I started him off on the trombone some twenty years ago. As a contrast to the CTQ they all play modern instruments (mostly Conns if you were wondering). The day began with a workshop led by James, Matthew and Tom, with Sue and Adrian also in attendance. Kevin Morgan from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was also there on a bit of a busman’s holiday, the rest of us were local players (or reasonably local) of all ages and experience. Altogether there were 15 trombonists and about three times that many trombones in the church. St Mary’s Church is a fantastic venue. It has a warm acoustic without too much echo which complements the trombone without anything sounding too stodgy or drawn out, unless that is how you’re playing in the first place, of course. Some of the building dates to medieval times with Victorian and 20th century additions. So very much like the two trombone quartets. We kicked off with James and Matt taking us through a group warm-up. We began with quick introductions and how long we’d all been playing. I won’t tell you how long that was for some of us, but clearly what some people can do in 20 years some of us are still PHOTO CREDIT: LOUISE LEFFLER Continues on next page …

L-R TOM BERRY, SUE ADDISON, ADRIAN FRANCE. PHOTO CREDIT LOUISE LEFFLER.

working at after 50! We started playing, of course, with some breathing and relaxation exercises; various glissandi got the air flowing and simple lip slurs with metric modulations meant they weren’t that simple after all. These started with crotchets before playing the same slurs in quavers and then triplets. Some scales followed, grouped and phrased in different ways. I have reproduced my favourite exercise below, it’s very simple and very effective.

Sue and Adrian also talked to us about the more unusual instruments that their quartet uses. Sue’s slide trumpet had been recreated from Renaissance paintings of trumpet playing cherubs as there are no extant examples. It’s half the length of a trombone, the same length as a trumpet. The body of the instrument moves up and down the lead pipe, effectively having only a single tube for the slide, which plays havoc with your chops. Sue proceeded to tell us it hadn’t been out of the case for many years, before then playing it beautifully and hitting every note perfectly which is rather an incredible skill to have.

Adrian took us through the history of the trombone and its repertoire before leading us through some Equali composed by the gloriously monikered Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried from 1834/7 (written in Vienna) and Wenzel Gottlieb Lambel from 1844 (written in Linz). We also found out the rather incredible fact that Beethoven and Bruckner both wrote their Equali/Aequale in the same house in Linz, just 35 years apart.

We managed rather well with some help from the pros and finished with Sue taking us through a version of Holst’s Fantasia on the Dargason. This is where all of those pea-shooters and G trombones came in handy as they were handed out for us to use. Luckily, I was at the end of the queue and missed out so had to play my own instrument which prevented any G trombone related embarrassment. Well, we made it to the end is the best I can say but it was fun getting there.

The evening concert itself was well attended (allowing for some social distancing) and began with

L-R MIGUEL TANTOS, SUE ADDISON, EMILY WHITE, JAMES BUCKLE, TOM BERRY, ROBERT MACDONALD, ADRIAN FRANCE, MATTHEW LEWIS, EMMA BASSETT. PHOTO CREDIT: JANET BUCKLE.

Beethoven’s Equali: the CTQ played the first movement from the entrance to the church before St5 played the second movement from the opposite transept. Finally, the CTQ moved to face the other group and played the last movement as a double quartet. Turning your head from one to the other gave a fantastic demonstration of the different sound quality of the sackbuts on the left and the modern instruments on the right. They finished with Hymne an die Nacht with Robert MacDonald singing the words hurriedly added for Beethoven’s own funeral.

The concert continued with the groups taking it in turns: St5 played Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute, an excerpt from Wagner’s Die Walkure, Che gelida manina from La Boheme by Puccini and Evening Prayer from Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel.

The CTQ played Canzonato fur vier posaunen by von Braun and Schütz’s Fili Mi Absalon, before the two groups combined and played an absolutely beautiful version of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ Variation. Much rummaging in car boots had taken place as a variety of instruments old and new were used.

The second half of the concert saw St5 attempting to drag our ears into the 20th Century with Eric Ewazen’s Myths and Legends, Bourgeois’ Quartet and Brian Lynn’s Four for Four before the CTQ kept dragging us happily back a century with Molloy’s Love’s Old Sweet Song, Balfe’s Come into the Garden Maud, Bruckner’s Aequale One, Mendelssohn’s Tarantella, and Gruber’s Domine Deus with Robert’s voice once again complimenting the quartet very well. St5 finished with jazz standards: Sherwin’s A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and Carmichael’s Georgia on My Mind. Derek Bourgeois, who died in 2017, lived locally and the concert was dedicated to his memory.

The playing throughout was superb and very polished. Each member of the groups got to introduce one or more of the items and it was very clear that all of the players were genuinely excited to be performing again after a year of covid and cancelled concerts. On a personal level it was fantastic to see one of my old students playing so incredibly well. The concert closed with all hands-on deck and an incredible version of Dance Macabre by Saint-Saens, arranged by Alan Gout which nicely brought things full circle as he was one of my first teachers many years ago.

To read Adrian France’s programme notes from the concert please follow this link. ◆