When Covid-19 hit and the UK entered a succession of lockdowns, John Miller and myself fished out some detritus from our previous lives as working full-time professional players. We started playing duets together around 70 years ago. So, we now started to amuse ourselves, playing through duets again, as we had done to ‘keep our lips in’ earlier in our careers. After soon running out of mateial there was nothing for it but to bite the bullet on the previously unapproachable Himalayan heights of Holloway and St Jacome, which had always broken down previously due to insufficient focus in the area of concentration, something that aspiring duettees have to contend with. Collapsing into giggle fits may be OK in peacetime, but, in the middle of a pandemic, normal trumpet-playing behaviours just didn’t cut the mustard.
So, ‘we two Johns’ buckled down to our task to learn new pieces despite our British predilection for never getting past the sightreading stage. Perseverando became our motto, we found the right instruments for the Holloway, which sounded better, more incisive in C, than Bb, and we found that the St Jacome sounded so much better when we bent over backwards to capture the sonority of the 19th century by playing instruments of the period. The Bellon then had to be played on the very earliest instruments we could put our hands on, which happened to be in the John Webb Collection at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and despite the difficulties of sourcing the written notes on an instrument with only two valves, the sound world these magnificent instruments conjured up was closer to the time of the ancient lurs than to the present day. In adversity, we discovered that there is much great music written for trumpet duet and inspire the hope that these recordings will stimulate others to play this music and derive as much pleasure from it as have ‘we two Johns’.
We are delighted, therefore, to also offer free downloadable copies of the Saint-Jacome and Bellon duet books that have been used in this recording. The Holloway can be purchased directly from Boosey & Hawkes.
TRACKLIST:
Robin Holloway (b.1943) Sonata for 2 Trumpets (2000)
1. I. Prelude
2. II. Melody with Echo
3. III. Toccata, Intermezzo, and Fugue
Louis-Antoine Saint-Jacome (1830 – 1898) 12 Celebrated Duets from New & Modern Grand Method for the Cornet à Pistons (1879)
4. No. 1 Allegretto
5. No. 2 Alla breve
6. No. 3 Moderato
7. No. 4 Allegro Moderato
8. No. 5 Andante – Minuetto (Vivace) – Trio (Sostenuto) – Minuetto
9. No. 6 Fugato
10. No. 7 Lento Cantabile Grazioso – Polacca – Minore – Polacca
11. No. 8 Allegro Moderato
12. No. 9 Poco Adagio – Allegretto leggiero
13. No. 10 Moderato ma non troppo
14. No. 11 Andante – Variation 1 (un poco più vivo) – Var.2 (animato) – Var.3 (triplets) – Var.4 (semiquavers) – Var. 5 (minoré/più lento) – cadenza ad libitum – Andante tempo primo
15. No.12 Moderato leggiero e grazioso – Lento – Scherzando – RONDO Scherzando
Jean-François Bellon (1795-1869) Trois Duo Concertans Pour Pistons, Op. 17 (1834)
1er DUO
16. i.Allegro moderato
17. ii. Andante
18. iii. Rondo
2me DUO
19. i. Maestoso
20. ii. Andante
21. iii. Rondo
3me DUO
22. i. Andante
23. ii. Barcarolle
24. iii. Rondo Menuetto