Jacob/Howarth/Bourgeois

COMPOSERS: Jacob/Howarth/Bourgeois
LABELS: BIS
WORKS: Trombone Concertos
PERFORMER: Christian Lindberg (trombone)BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Grant Llewellyn
CATALOGUE NO: CD-658 DDD
These pieces, all written since 1952, reveal a country, mercifully some would say, not at the leading edge of innovatory brass technique. Yet by not pushing the soloist to the limits, each composer reveals an individual voice that gives even a record of trombone concertos an entertaining variety of music. The Jacob is mainly jolly, and jolly English; the Bourgeois quirkily lyrical; but why did Elgar Howarth take to trumpeting and conducting if he had this wonderful orchestral score in him at the age of 23? Lindberg is both dazzling and involving. Christopher Mowat