Martin Anderson
International Record Review
September 2004

The fact that none of the three works here started out life as we hear them on this CD matters not a whit, for they all succeed splendidly in their new cladding; the booklet note, by John Wallace and Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, begins with an extensive justification for their tomb-robbing, which their and Colm Carey's resplendent performances render unnecessary.

Rheinberger's Suite Op 149, was originally conceived for violin, cello and organ. Here the string lines are given over to piccolo and B flat trumpets, which carry them much more naturally against full organ textures. The three snippets from Strauss's Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite—here using piccolo and E Flat trumpets—work well, too, particularly in the broad and dignified Entrée de Cléonte and the sixteenth century hemiolic dance (as Wallace and Freeman-Attwood call it), which lies at its centre.

This new version [of Elgar's Organ Sonata No 2 Op 87a] for two E flat trumpets and organ, therefore occupies the middle ground, with the bright, incisive trumpet lines soaring over a broad carpet of organ sonority. I doubt that Elgar would have minded … the effectiveness of Wallace's and Freeman-Attwood's version might well have convinced him as much as it has me.

The playing of all three gentlemen is absolutely assured, and the recording, and SACD/CD hybrid, made in the spacious acoustic of Hereford Cathedral, is of demonstration quality.