Scorrete lagrime mie - Music for Solo Sackbut

Many of the solo sonatas written for an instrument with continuo, starting some fifteen years into the seventeenth century, were intended for “sopranos,” which might include the violin or the cornetto, as the two primary candidates; recorders may also have been used to realize these sonatas. This album re-imagines the solo instrument as the trombone, or as it was known during the time, as the sackbut.

The approach taken here was not to play the solos by the like of Fontana or Frescobaldi. Instead, Maximilien Brisson bases these solos upon vocal works of the era, from the likes of Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Lodovico Grossi da Vidana, among others. The album contains two originals by the trombonist, Brisson, written in a period style. Frescobaldi’s Canzon per basso solo detta La Tromboncina is also included. The trombone is joined by harpsichord and organ in a nearly 60 minute presentation.

I took special interest in this album because of my prior life as a trombonist. The early baroque trombone I will admit, I haven’t heard with a nicer tone. Brisson plays a copy of a 1632 instrument from the Frankfurt historical museum.

The continuo support from Christophe Gauther and Luc Beauséjour is strong, with a ripe sound for the harpsichord. Strategically, we don’t always get both instruments throughout, which is smart, for variety’s sake. The meantone temperament is a special aspect of my enjoyment of the continuo parts.

To acquaint yourself with an expectation for this repertoire, one might want to explore works from this period realized on cornetto, the leather-bound woodwind instrument which uses a trumpet-like mouthpiece, noted for its sound and how closely it imitates the human voice. While the sound of a cornetto is a bit sharper, the trombone used in this recording I think can be considered as the tenor version of the cornetto. However, there were moments, such as in the second and third tracks, which I could have used more of a rhetorical approach to playing. While the tone of Brisson’s instrument carries no criticism, there could have been more of an attempt to differentiate one phrase from the other through articulation, dynamics, or even rubato playing with the time.

Listen to Brisson’s own take on La Spagna in track 4 and how the differentiation of articulation can bring interest to the music; he does well enough to distinguish between a legato tonguing versus a hard articulation on every note, heard in the faster sections.

Brisson is more successful, I think, in the performance of the Frescobaldi canzona, track 13. Perhaps this is more successful as it was conceived as an instrumental piece?

In the penultimate track? Because of the range, perhaps? I felt like Brisson was imitating the human voice performing the piece by Sigismondo d’India; not because he sounds closer to a cornetto, no, but just in the way he shapes the phrasing?

The last track is another Brisson original, a Sonata per il Trombone solo. At seven and a half minutes, it’s the longest piece on the recording. The piece, I think stylewise, is spot-on, providing props to Brisson for his adoption of the early baroque style. His writing for the solo line is also more adventuresome, which I enjoyed over the pieces originally written for voice.

We’re often told in the context of recordings that the pieces assembled are not always suited to a continuous listen. It may be why more and more albums are shying away from presenting comprehensive collections and offering instead discs akin to concert performances.

For this album, there was a monotony of sound which made for listening to this album completely a challenge. While the playing is of the first order from all musicians, I’d ideally re-listen to these selections programmed alongside sonatas for other instruments, at least for some variety. The recorded sound is nearly ideal, I thought, even if the harpsichord came in a bit too clear. Imagine you’re in the front row, and things should be okay.

While Brisson’s playing is good, I felt in the pieces he arranged from vocal pieces might have enjoyed further stylistic variance. He does well to imitate the voice in many pieces, and I think above all else, he makes a significant case for us hearing the sackbut as a solo instrument, even if composers didn’t leave us the repertoire.

This album will appeal most to those in love with early baroque music from Italy and likewise, the sound of the early trombone.