The Trumpets of the Angels

The Music of Edward Gregson: Volume IV
Black Dyke Band
Conductor: Dr. Nicholas Childs
Featuring: David Thornton; Joseph Cook; Jamie Prophet; Meera Bell Thomson
Doyen Recordings: CD185
Total Playing Time: 70.43

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Black Dyke enter their 150th year both as the National Champion Brass Band of Great Britain, but also with perhaps the most significant CD recording in their long history. "The Trumpets of the Angels" is the culmination of a recording project that has taken over 12 years to complete and which now provides us with the definitive collection of the work of Edward Gregson, one of the movements foremost compositional giants. 

It is perhaps hard to believe that 2005 also sees a significant landmark for the composer as well, as Edward Gregson reaches the age of 60.  Was it really 27 years ago that his "Connotations" fairly seared its mark on the collective consciousness of our movement when it was used at the Royal Albert Hall for the National Finals in 1977? That day, Black Dyke won with a performance that not only sealed their reputation as the premiere brass band of its time, but also heralded the first of the composers major works that moved the direction of mainstream top level contest music towards a new age of intelligent inventiveness.

What followed was a series of works that remain to this day challenging both technically and musically for the performers, yet are accessible and immensely enjoyable for the listener. The composer's individuality has never been lost from his first minor work for brass band (the march Dalaro in 1964) to his latest and most immense achievement, "The Trumpets of the Angels",  whilst each of his intervening works has a distinctive hallmark that earmarks Gregson from his contemporaries.

He remains an important figure within the movement, although his contesting output has for the time being stopped following the rather short sighted decision of organisers not to use his "Of Men and Mountains" as a major test piece on the grounds that it was "too long". His own sleeve notes obliquely allude to this (as well as his annoyance at closed adjudication) and the fact that he believes the challenge of the "12-minute test piece formula" has now been fully met. He mentions Simpson, Bourgeois, McCabe and Wilby - all of whom made their mark on the brass band movement with extended works way in excess of that old conservative formula, and which was used as an excuse against his major work. It is understood that he will not write again for a brass band contest until that slight is righted - it should be done immediately for it is our great loss.

This final CD release covers four works: two are for solo instruments in the form of his "Concerto for Tuba" and "Symphonic Rhapsody for Euphonium", whilst the other pair are premiere recordings of his reconstituted and amended "An Age of Kings" and the immense "The Trumpets of the Angels".

The oldest work is for the euphonium, published in 1976 but with the kernel of its development dated as far back as the 1960s. As with all his solo compositions, it is an easily accessible work for the listener to enjoy; broad lyrical melodies allied to tight rhythmic structures make for a transparent yet purposeful score that is delivered with a freshness and immense amount of distinctiveness by David Thornton.   It is a wonderfully shaped and well-tempered performance of understated virtuosity.

The "Tuba Concerto" dates from 1975 when it was commissioned by the Besses o' th' Barn Band and was subsequently premiered by the late and truly great John Fletcher a year later. It is a classically constructed, yet retains a certain sense of youthful rebelliousness in its writing. The developed rhythmical structures that become so familiar in later works are used for perhaps the first time and there is a flow of musical thought from beginning to end that makes the composition so coherent and compact. Nothing is overdeveloped (each of the movements are within 10 seconds of each other in length) yet new little peppercorn sized motifs and ideas spring into view in almost every bar of the piece. It is a quite joyful work and is given a quite outstanding performance by Joseph Cook.

"An Age of Kings" is also a composition that traces its musical origins quite a way further back than the date of this premiere recording.

It initially started life as music for the RSC production of "The Plantagenets" (although the composers superb brass band work of the same name didn't form a part of it) and it was followed by other elements later, before being adapted into two large symphonic works in 1991 and 1996 (recorded by Doyen on a CD of the composers wind music).   It was again reworked in part for brass and featured in the Welsh Brass Festival held in Treorchy a few years ago. This however is the final (and as the composers notes), definitive brass band version.

It is an evocative and colourful score, which takes us through a musical picture of a turbulent period of history when Henry VI and his predecessors battled against the French during the "Hundred Years War", which started in 1338 and which ended at the Battle of Castillon in 1453. The music captures the period on a dramatic musical canvas: from the horrific and strikingly frightening Battle Music to the more subdued and lyrical music of the Welsh Court and the glorious triumphal music of both the Church and the State.  It is a quite magnificent work, which is delivered, in quite magnificent fashion.

Finally we come to "The Trumpet of the Angels" which is given its premiere studio recording. It has been set on CD before; notably by the Eikanger with their live performance at the Norwegian National Championships with Dr Childs and Martin Winter as conductor and lead trumpet voice.  For this recording, Jamie Prophet of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra brilliantly leads the seven trumpets in the immense three movement work which takes its inspiration fro the Book of Revelation and St. John's prophecy of the Day of Judgement. The sophistication and power of the subject matter is brought to life with an emotional intensity that is at times bewildering.

The first six of the Angels trumpet calls are harbingers of destruction and retribution but the seventh brings salvation to the chosen believers and it is the astonishing writing for the seventh trumpeter that gives the work such an breathtaking climax. It is the most extreme cadenza you are ever likely to hear, but one that has been developed from the surrounding thematic material and which develops it to its almost terrifying conclusion. Jamie Prophet delivers it in an epic earth juddering manner that closes a work of almost visceral incisiveness.

This is quite a landmark recording from Black Dyke and Dr Nicholas Childs.  The scope and breadth of the recording is something to behold, as is the standard of the playing and musical interpretation from both the MD and the featured soloists. It is a glorious testament to a truly great brass composer.

Iwan Fox

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