Customer Reviews

At the Opera

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album changed my life. My whole approach to playing trumpet and phrasing changed by listening to it every day for months. When I listen to something else it is always a relief to hear this again. Those first string notes in the Bizet (I know it's track 5, but I always listen to it first) followed by that sound is like a religious experience. I figured out how to play high by listening to "Die Zauberflote: Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen". The whole album is a study in perfect phrasing, though I think "Traviata" and "Norma" are especially sublime. And I don't even have words to describe the opening of "Lakme".

Andre sounds great...musical, appropriate, contextual, great intonation...really superb job. Frank Palvolgyi...if you're good enough to chew out Andre...how come I don't see any of your recordings on the shelf? Maybe you should get your ass in a practice room...

I have a hard time giving Maurice Andre stars because stars were meant for mortals and if you know anything about him you know he's definitely not of this world. I also imagine that even Maurice Andre playing the telephone book would probably be worth 10 stars.

In any case, here is Maurice playing transcriptions of Opera arias. If you are a true, rabid opera fan, this will probably strike you as some kind of sacrilege, and you will weep with rage. Get over it, and go buy your 47th copy of some singer hacking her way through Carmen.

If you like hearing a great trumpet player exploring the lyrical possibilities of his instrument, then you are in the right place. It's especially appropriate for any of you trumpet players out there who spent your formative years playing the opera arias & song transcriptions in the back of the infamous J. Arban's Method for Trumpet Players. If that's how you spent your youth (like me), instead of having a normal social life, you owe it to yourself to buy this CD. Maurice does it right.

Maurice Andre made two recordings specifically devoted to opera arias--this one for the Erato label and another for EMI. While there is a lot of overlap between the two recordings, both are essential. As a professional trumpeter, I understand the gravity of what I'm about to say: Maurice Andre is the best Classical soloist of the twentieth century, and we're unlikely to hear anything close to this level of trumpet playing for decades, perhaps centuries. While artists like Wynton Marsalis, Hakan Hardenberger, and Ole Edvard Antonsen are absolutely first-rate musicians who are admirably moving the trumpet in new directions, there was something so pure and beautiful about Maurice's sound, so uncanny and perfect in his technique, so understated in his perfection, so lyrical in his phrasing, so idyllic in the obvious joy with which he played every note, that his recorded legacy will be a challenge and an inspiration for every generation of trumpeters to follow.

Recorded here are ten well-known opera arias with the Opera Orchestra of Monte-Carlo, Marc Soustrot conducting. While the orchestral playing isn't quite as good as the later EMI recording, here we have a younger Maurice Andre with a somewhat more "bravura" approach. The Delibes "Lakme" is worth the price of the disc alone. Verdi's "La Traviata" is actually the Arban version with variations, recorded with a completely different ensemble, and a nice bonus. Even if you're not an opera buff, these melodies will be instantly familiar, and a perfect foil for Maurice's lyricism and musicality.

I can't recommend this recording enough. Seek out the other EMI disc, too. The closer you listen, the more amazing it gets, and if you're a trumpeter, you're then faced with the staggering challenge of emulating this level of artistry. Enjoy.

First - Track 9, labeled "Martern aller Arten" - Konstanze's towering aria from Mozart's DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL is actually her earlier Act 1 aria "Ach Ich Liebte, War So Gucklich". This for me is a major infraction - somewhat like replacing your Rolex Oyster with a Timex Indiglo (unfair - but you get the idea).

Second - Most of the selections here are played too slow, and without the expected swagger or soul. If you want trumpet playing classical music, try Doc Severinsen's TRUMPET SPECTECULAR (with Erich Kunzel conducting the Cincinnati Pops) which has only a couple opera tracks, but one of them is an absolutely [great] version of 'Largo al factotum' from Rossini's Barber of Seville.