It seems as if the great trumpet maestro cannot put the instrument down after all the hullabaloo about his retirement: several of the world's leading players and admirers gathered in Rotterdam for the International Trumpet Guild in 1992 to witness the 'final' concert. Maybe the winding down process was not intended to include recordings (though apparently he can still be spotted playing the odd concert) but with such a physically oriented instrument, concerts and recordings amount to the same thing: the desire to keep all the necessary muscles working. For our sake I hope that Maurice Andre continues well into his late sixties and possibly beyond, if he wishes to emulate Adolph Herseth who was playing Principal Trumpet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at 70 plus. Andre is unarguably the father of modern solo classical playing and arguably the greatest trumpet player of all time, so there is always special expectation, even for a recording of trumpet 'standards' all of which he has recorded at least once and in the case of the Haydn, many times. Even if he now has little of the adventurous edge in his vocabulary, his autumnal sound is an exquisite reminder that even now few can rival him for pure beauty of sound and the cultivated poise you expect of any great instrumentalist. It would be unfair to draw specific comparisons but his understanding and reading of a complete canvas is on a different level to the comparatively small-scale performances of the following generation.
Andre performs on Stomvi trumpets these days which evidently complement his smooth and silky tone, though perhaps the songful and warm glow of the Selmer years is sometimes missed (witness this in the fine catalogue of reissues from Erato). Even so, there is no mistaking the old master in the unaggressive stroked articulation and the full, long-breathed lines of the slow movements where he does everything that people imagine a trumpet cannot do well. Unruffled and undemonstrative in the outer movements of the Haydn and Hummel, he gives the latter, in particular, a wonderfully nonchalant swagger and in the stratospheric Hertel Concerto he picks off the top notes with the assurance of an Olympic high-jumper. Intonation, if expressively sharp at its best, is a worry in the Marcello which uses an especially indigestible arrangement – this piece has been prone to many, Bach's excluded of course. So, if there is not quite the radiance and energy of the younger man, the close control of colour and timbre in the high vocalized movements – which was his hallmark – and sensual vibrato, there is still that inimitable bravura imbued with a reflective quality of a seasoned artist. Will there be more? If so, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra do very nicely. R1 '9507027'