Some decades ago I offered a correspondence course ''which renders the execution of difficulty easily''—so wrote an overseas subscriber in a fit of enthusiasm. So surely and fluently does he negotiate his instrument's stratosphere, Maurice Andre might well have had the benefit of such a course, though not, I hasten to add, mine. His skill and artistry have not always been displayed to best advantage in some injudiciously borrowed (and often thin-gruel) music, but here they are directed to works originally written for the trumpet, all of them musically satisfying. The Telemann concerto, not that with two concertante oboes, is a da chiesa affair in which the trumpet leads the way into the opening Adagio but remains silent in the sensitively hushed second movement (Grave), not great music but well above wallpaper level, apt for its medium and with winsome moments of 'conversation'. The remaining items have recorded alternatives, though not combined on any one record, none clearly to be preferred to Andre.
Muti seucres finely controlled and splendidly transparent performances from the 'mainstream' players of the Philharmonia and only a stopwatch reveals the leisurely tempos in the Brandenburg Concerto (no trace of heaviness here). Though such a programme will appeal most strongly to lovers of the noble trumpet (who will take particular delight in the virtuosic cadenza in the Haydn), it still commends itself to the less brass-bound listener as very enjoyable music, superbly played and recorded by all concerned. It is nice to be able to recommend a record of Andre without reservation.'