COMPOSERS: Bohme,Bozza,Enescu,Gwood,Henze,Hohne,Honegger,Peaslee,Roddle & Mcguire
LABELS: Warwick Music
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Nightsongs
WORKS: Trumpet music by Honegger, Hohne, Peaslee, Bohme, Bozza, Enescu, Henze, GWood, Roddle & McGuire
PERFORMER: Angela Whelan, Nigel Boddice (trumpet)Julia Lynch (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: WM 003
Shell/LSO Prizewinning trumpeter Angela Whelan's debut recording, if not a flawless release, reveals a promising artist, offering huge potential. It is certainly not helped by poor engineering, which leaves the stylish and sympathetic piano accompaniment of Julia Lynch languishing in the background, and there is also evidence of insufficient producer input, allowing several out-of-tune notes, occasional tonal distortion and a ragged ending to Hohne's Slavonic Fantasy. These details aside, what this disc does convey is the refreshing vitality and powerful sense of drama in 23-year-old Whelan's playing. She breathes life into that old warhorse the Bozza Caprice, giving a thoroughly arresting performance, and there is a superb finale to the disc in the form of Edward McGuire's Orbit- an effective and original work for two trumpets.
If Whelan's account of Henze's Sonatina compares unfavourably with the likes of Hakan Hardenberger, this comes as no surprise considering it is the first recording of a young artist. In the future we should look forward to a more professional recording, the rather brash trumpet tone tempered with greater lyricism, and with generally stronger repertoire. Deborah Calland