Listening Lounge

In this edition of The Listening Lounge, we feature just one artist, BTS Player of the Year 2022 Helen Vollam. Drawn from a recital given at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 11 November 2022, these recordings feature works either written for or arranged by Helen. Representing exciting additions to the repertoire these pieces showcase the ‘resonant fluid tone, melodious natural phrasing and unflinching accuracy’ of one of our leading players.

To learn more about Helen, and access more sound clips and videos, please visit her website. Nominations of tracks or albums to include in The Listening Lounge can be made by emailing editor@britishtrombonesociety.org.

SI DOLCE È IL TORMENTO – CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

ARR. HELEN VOLLAM

The aria Si dolce è il Tormento (So sweet is the torment) is drawn from Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (published by Milanuzzi, 1624), and continues the long tradition of trombonists borrowing from the vocal repertoire to display the instrument’s singing qualities. As Marin Mersenne wrote in 1636, in his book Harmonie universelle, ‘It [the trombone] should be blown by a skillful musician so that it may not imitate the sounds of the trumpet, but rather assimilate itself to the sweetness of the human voice…’, an ideal achieved by Helen in this performance.

AIR MOVING – KATHRYN TICKELL ARR. DAN JENKINS

About this piece, Helen says ‘I love Air Moving by Kathryn Tickell. She very kindly allowed Dan Jenkins to make a transcription of it for me. The original recording of Kathryn performing it is so atmospheric and she tells the story behind the tune.’ Transcriptions for both solo trombone and piano, and for trombone quartet are available from Dan Jenkins’ website.

MABUIKA! – SHIRLEY THOMPSON

Helen comments ‘Shirley Thompson’s piece Mabuika! is a lot of fun! She wrote it for me to record during lockdown. BBC Radio 3 commissioned various composers to write ‘postcards’ for solo instruments to be recorded at home, then edited and tweaked by the BBC producers. They were then broadcast on Radio 3 and posted on social media. About Mabuika! Shirley Thompson writes ‘The tenor trombone solo is taken from the opening movement of Symphony Jamaica, a large-scale historical project, and entitled Mabuika! (A Taino Welcome). The Tainos were the indigenous people of large parts of the Caribbean including the island of Jamaica where my parents are from.’ Mabuika! is published by Deuss Music

PARHELIA FROM BOOK OF MIRACLES – GAVIN HIGGINS

Helen premiered Gavin Higgins’ trombone concerto

The Book of Miracles in February 2019 at the Barbican, London, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Gavin writes ‘The Book of Miracles is a recently discovered 16th Century German manuscript depicting in vivid detail miraculous signs, natural catastrophes and Christian myths and overflowing with striking images of comets, fantastical beasts, miracles celestial apparitions and other astronomical events. From these images I have drawn inspiration for the four movements of this concerto. Parhelia (the second movement) is a ’celestial apparition’ caused by refractions of light passing through ice crystals in the air, the illustrations of which are some of the most impressive in the book. Read an interview with Helen and Gavin from the Winter 2018 edition of The Trombonist here, and to learn more about Gavin visit his website ◆