Audio Review: Direct Message: 20th & 21st Century Works for Trumpet and Piano by Matilda Lloyd

Direct Message: 20th & 21st Century Works for Trumpet and Piano (2018)
Orchid Classics
Matilda Lloyd – Trumpet
John Reid – Piano

British trumpeter and International soloist Matilda Lloyd released her debut album, Direct Message: 20th & 21st Century Works for Trumpet & Piano, in 2018. Containing a collection of well-known, forgotten, and new works for trumpet and piano. The impressive physical prowess of Lloyd is on full display from the outset of the album. Commencing with Peter Maxwell Davies’ Trumpet Sonata, which never fails to test the technical and physical ability of every performer. Lloyd performs musical acrobatics, leaping around all ranges of the instrument without even the slightest hint of a timbrel change. Being the excellent musician she is, Lloyd also demonstrates the sensitive side of her playing through her performance of Georges Enescu’s Légend. The album does not only consist of standard works for trumpet and piano.

Lloyd revives works such as the Trumpet Sonatine by Jacques Castérède and Sarabande et Finale by Raymond Gallois Montbrun, which have appeared to recede into the depths of the trumpet repertoire. Her recording of the Castérède exemplifies her pristine tone quality throughout all registers of the instrument. This album includes two works that had yet to be recorded. The title track Direct Message by Alex Woolf and Sangre Viva, Op. 92 by Giles Swayne both received their debut recording on this album. Her recording of 7 Halts on the Somme by Deborah Pritchard, originally for trumpet and string orchestra is the second recording of this piece, but the first recording of this piece for trumpet and piano. With a splash of standard repertoire interspersed with lesser-known and new repertoire, Lloyd’s first album offers quite the eclectic collection of music pairing contemporary pieces with the standard canon of trumpet repertoire.

Track List:

• Trumpet Sonata, Op. 1 – Peter Maxwell Davies
  • I. Allegro moderato
  • II. Lento
  • III. Allegro vivo
• Sarabande et finale – Raymond Gallois Montbrun
• Direct Message – Alex Woolf
• Légende – George Enescu
• 7 Halts on the Somme (Version for Trumpet & Piano) – Deborah Pritchard
  • No. 1, The Grand Mine
  • No. 2, Trônes Wood
  • No. 3, The Moulin
  • No. 4, Warlencourt Ridge
  • No. 5, The Sucrerie. Longueval
  • No. 6, Flatiron Copse
  • No. 7, Guillemont to Ginch
• Sangre Viva, Op. 92 – Giles Swayne
  • I. Dark 1
  • II. Sueño
• Trumpet Sonatine – Jacques Castérède
  • I. Allegro energico
  • II. Andantino
    III. Rondo. Allegro giocoso

This audio review was submitted by Alex Sanso.

Click here to purchase Direct Message.

Click here to learn more about Matilda Lloyd.