Last year I had a new concerto release on cd.

The concerto, by brilliant, Belgium-based British composer Nigel Clarke, is entitled Mysteries of the Horizon and is for Solo Trumpet and wind band. I have just begun experimenting with SoudCloud and so I have temporarily placed a separate recording of each movement down below. Please feel free to have a listen…

Nigel Clarke and I recorded the work in one three hour recording session in the Concert Hall of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester in September 2015.

If you want a listen…

American Clark Rundell was the conductor and I was accompanied by the RNCM Wind Band, an ensemble used to recording many cds and noted for its excellence.

The Executive Producer on the project was well known composer Martin Ellerby and the record producer was the acclaimed Richard Scott, both no strangers to the world of brass and wind music.

Nigel had composed the piece around four paintings by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte: The Menaced Assassin; The Dominion of Light: The Flavour of Tears & The Discovery of Fire. Although the individual movements are only loosely based on the work of Magritte, I personally feel a certain ambience is enjoyed when looking at the images of the work created by the artist whilst listening.

The recording of the concerto is available on the Polyphonic label and the recording number is: QPRM 162D

As part of his research whilst composing the concerto, Nigel Clark spent the night in the Magritte Museum in Brussels. The concerto gives much opportunity to the soloist to demonstrate different aspects of the instrument and as such is challenging both technically and musically for the performer. I would be very interested to read the comments of listeners in the allocated section at the bottom of this post.

To buy the cd, please click on this link: Nigel Clarke ‘The Mysteries of the Horizon’