''Eight timpani'' does not mean eight one-drum players in the style of a Russian horn band, it means eight drums under the control of one athlete, Jonathan Haas, an American specialist in the matter. How many rehearsal out-takes in which the orchestra got there first I do not know; the intriguing sketch of 1798, reproduced in the booklet, of a possible layout of 16 drums, with one player holding three sticks in each hand in the manner of 1920s xylophone soloists, certainly looks ominous! But the drum parts on the disc in no way resemble those agonizing xylophone solos; instead, they are resolutely melodic, save for a very few two-note chords, in either the bass part or the tune. The bass part is the instruments' natural habitat: I have no need to report how well they can sound there. About how they sound in what should be a treble-register tune, normally accompanied from below, I must report reservations which obviously will not be shared by timpanists, but may be shared by some listeners.
It would seem difficult to think that both composers might have wanted to have another go, to see if something more suited to the curious instrumentation might be managed, yet Druschetzky seems to have done so. He was, it is true, a first study timpanist, yet in the third piece (in recorded order), the Concerto for oboe and timpani, his music approaches the skill and beauty more regularly offered by Mozart. Extra colour is offered not only by the solo oboe part, most beautifully played by Gordon Hunt, but also by the extra supporting wind in the orchestra. As a result the timps themselves are less dominating, and are more often employed in a elaborated form of their normal 'proper' function. In one minor respect, however, I think that the note-writer, Professor Harrison Powley, and myself must be on this occasion hearing different drummers: he reports several cadenzas improvised by the performers, I report hearing two proper (and very good) cadenzas, neither of which could conceivably have been improvised by the performers in any real sense.
The Concerto remains, of course, a most enjoyable work, and indeed, the whole disc is of great interest. And, here and there, not only to timpanists!'