Tomasi/Jolivet: Trumpet Concertos

by Richard S. GinellFor this classical release, Wynton Marsalis leaps forward to 20th century France -- a daring leap, perhaps, in that the two composers featured on the record, Henri Tomasi (1909-1971) and Andre Jolivet (1905-1974), are not exactly household names in the U.S. Not only were Tomasi and Jolivet members of the same generation, they stood at odds with the prevailing Boulez-ian winds blowing through French music in 1948-1954, reverting back to a 1920s sensibility. The first movement of the Tomasi has some lovely, urbane harmonic ideas, switching between distant muted passages and full horn, and the third movement is very French in its fast-paced, clearly-etched street music, while the Nocturne might be a bit slushy for some tastes. The short, attractive Jolivet Concertino for Trumpet, Piano and Strings has a propulsive neo-classical base but also contains touches of jazz syncopation. Jazz is even more front and center in Jolivet's Concerto No. 2, opening with a quizzical episode for wah-wah muted trumpet and proceeding through some high-spirited pratfalls and tomfoolery, complete with saxophones. Yet even when the jazz is at its most overt, Marsalis always maintains a classical tone and composure, never tipping the uninformed off as to his jazz side. His collaborators here are London's Philharmonia Orchestra and the Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, a staunch champion of contemporary music whose own career was achieving liftoff around this time. Though they were friends and labelmates, Marsalis and Salonen would not collaborate again until 2001, when they performed and recorded Marsalis' "All Rise" in Los Angeles.