This enjoyable 1989 recording is a timely reminder of just how elegant and engaging the euphonium can sound as a solo instrument away from a brass band.

In the hands of a very fine exponent in Jean-Pierre Chevailler, it is also playing that originates from a different, more refined era: And we are not just talking about the choice of repertoire either.

Robotic savants

Today, the modern pyrotechnic exponent is a master of technical proficiency; youthful robotic savants created by Arbanesque design patterns.  

It’s become a dystopian production line of cloned blandness. Performers are now able to rattle through works of mind numbing algorithmic complexity with immense power and fluidity, yet still remain stubbornly immune to an intuitive appreciation of the beauty of the simplest musical line. 

Brave New World

Only the very best – those blessed with quixotic dispositions and fertile musical intellects remain a breed apart.

The rest, as if created in Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, are dispatched to take their places in the 21st century brass band; callow, fearless and deprived through automaton practice regimes of a musical soul.

More expressive world

Chevailler on the other hand was a performer born into a more expressive musical world – first as a player in the Radio Suisse Romande and than as a student at the celebrated Lausanne Conservatiore. He was also crowned the 1983 Euphonium Player of the Year.

Now 68 years of age, he is one of the nicest musicians you would ever like to meet – even if his CD picture has taken on the reverse quality of a Dorian Gray portrait.  

His hair may now be grey and less buoyant and the beard has gone, but the timeless beauty of Chevailler’s playing remains.

This recording should be made essential listening to euphonium students the world over. 

Trio of works

The trio of arrangements of works by Handel, Mozart and Danzi were recorded in London 1986 and are fine examples of how the euphonium can come into its own as a solo voice, especially when not submerged by the over bearing tonal forces of the modern brass band.

Chevallier plays with a compact, warmly hued tonality – a perfect counterbalance to his graceful artistry and considered technique.

He interprets with stylish elegance, helped by a precise and flexible City of London Sinfonia directed with sympathetic elan by the late George Lloyd.

Faultless musicianship

The musicianship is faultless; from the Handel ‘Concerto in F Minor’ - detailed, clear and expressive, through the Mozart Bassoon ‘Concerto in B Flat – K191’, which bubbles with vivaciousness and finesse. 

Danzi’s ‘Concerto in F Major’ is a gem of nuance and subtly – the stylistic differences between each of the three movements delicate yet defined.

Time has not made this form of elegant euphonium playing redundant – far from it in fact. 

It has perhaps made the case for it to be revived, championed and appreciated by a new generation even more important.

Iwan Fox

Contents

Handel Concerto in F minor
1. Grave, 3.30
2. Allegro, 1.50
3. Sarabande — Largo, 2.57
4. Allegro, 2.06
Mozart Concerto in B flat — K191
5. Allegro, 6.09
6. Andante, 6.01
7. Rondo — Tempo di Minuetto, 4.01
Danzi Concerto in F major
8. Allegro, 8.47
9. Andante, 2.48
10. Polacca Allegretto, 5.18