Obscurus Maxwell Davies: Litany for a Ruined Chapel between Sheep and Shore; Janáček: In the Mists; Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1; plus works by Messiaen, Raskovic and Takemitsu Lucy Humphris (trumpet), Harry Rylance (piano) Rubicon RCD1105 58:37 mins
This debut album mixes original works and transcriptions, starting with Humphris’s own arrangement of Janáček’s In the Mists. The high tessitura in the first piece holds no terrors for her, but it’s only towards the end, when the instrument is muted, that the otherwordly character emerges fully. It’s the same in the remaining three pieces: the misty quality rarely registers in the forward sound of the trumpet, despite the engagement of both performers.
No such problem in Maxwell Davies’s unaccompanied Litany for a Ruined Chapel between Sheep and Shore. There’s a little untidiness in some of the fiercely tricky melismatic passages, but the longer melodic lines have real emotional power, conjured up through a variety of colour and phrasing, and that also holds in Messiaen’s brief Vocalise-étude, played with warmth on the flugelhorn.
The most adventurous piece is Òstria, composed for Humphris by Filippos Raskovic, using multiphonics, flutter-tonguing and other extended techniques to create a sound picture of the warm Saharan wind bringing rain and dust to Europe. It’s heavy on atmosphere, and could be a sprawl, but Humphris clearly enjoys its challenges, and the few passages with conventionally pitched notes give it formal backbone. Humphris’s version of Respighi’s First Suite of Ancient Airs and Dances – an arrangement of an arrangement – sees her on piccolo trumpet, which suits the Renaissance style, and is sparklingly delivered. Finally, Takemitsu’s Paths – In Memoriam Witold Lutosławski is a touching imaginary dialogue between the two composers, represented by the muted and unmuted instrument. A beautiful envoi.
Martin Cotton