Peter Moore trombone
Tredegar Brass Band
Ian Porthouse conductor
Chandos CHSA 5366
Born in Belfast and raised in Greater Manchester, Peter Moore gained international attention at the age of 12 when, in 2008, he became the youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Appointed Co-Principal Trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra aged just 18, he left after 10 years to focus on his solo career.
As this disc proves that was a good move. Focusing on his life-long association with the brass bands, the programme here includes major works such as Gordon Langford’s Rhapsody, Eric Leidzen’s Concertino, and the first recording of Simon Dobson’s Shift – a concerto in all but name, written for Mr. Moore. Other works on the disc comprise excellent arrangements of popular standards. It ends with the foot-stamping samba-inspired finale from Philip Sparke’s concerto.
Gordon Langford’s Rhapsody was written in 1978 for the great Don Lusher. Thereafter it very quickly became a trombone standard, and a work for trombonists to ‘test their chops on’. This is no surprise as it is superbly written for the instruments and packs so much into its 13-minute duration. There are virtuoso sections showing just what the instrument can do and some wonderful lyrical writing in homage to Lusher’s famously warm tone.
One big tune is marked molto cantabile e lusheroso and Mr Moore gives it his all. Halfway through, over a percussion riff, the soloist is offered the opportunity to improvise a cadenza, which Mr Moore perfectly judges, not too jazzy, not too staid.This is probably the best version of the many I have heard over the years.
A real find for me was Simon Dobson’s three-movement concerto from 2012 entitled Shift. It is a tremendously exciting work, the outer two movements being full of high energy and seemingly impossible scoring. The middle movement provides a moment of calm with a simple diatonic melody supported mainly by sustained chords and metallophones, all to great effect. The scoring is so effective at times I had to remind myself I was listening to brass and percussion and not a full symphony orchestra.
Surprisingly for someone who has been part of the music world for over 20 years, Mr Dobson is a new name to me but one I will most certainly look out for. This is music which acknowledges the past but is very much of the present.
Chandos have a long association with brass bands and the disc is as superbly recorded as it is performed. Every nuance of the tremendous Tredegar Band under Ian Porthouse is captured with technicolor brilliance.
Review by Paul RW Jackson