Mary Elizabeth Bowden: Rêverie
Summit Records

Similar to Asteria, the sterling set trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden issued last year as a founding member of the all-female group Seraph Brass, Rêverie pairs her with another female-centric outfit, the Pittsburgh-based Kassia Ensemble, for a release featuring classical works for trumpet, strings, harp, and harpsichord. Yet while Bowden has done much to promote the cause of female players in the brass world, recordings such as Radiance, her 2015 debut solo release, and Rêverie ultimately stand or fall on the merits of the music, and in that regard they hold up splendidly.

When not recording with the aforementioned ensembles, Bowden performs with the ten-piece Chrysalis Chamber Players (of which she's also a founding member) and with her trumpeter husband David Dash under the Dash Duo name. A seasoned performer who appeared recently with the Hunan Symphony Orchestra in China and with Adele on several 2016 tour dates, Bowden is also a Resident Artist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and this fall will join the faculty of Winchester's Shenandoah Conservatory as Assistant Professor of Trumpet.

Radiance and Rêverie are complementary sets, but one detail in particular separates them: whereas Radiance emphasizes contemporary material, Rêverie balances recently composed works with earlier ones by Mozart, Bach, Debussy, and Bellini. That difference appears greater on paper, however, than it does in practice when the pieces compose a seamless whole, attributable in part to the consistent persona established by the performers. Sarah Kirkland Snider's ruminative Chrysalis (2006), for instance, might be a composition of recent vintage, yet it sits comfortably amongst ones by Bach and Mozart.

The Kassia Ensemble, which augments the traditional string quartet with bass, clarinet, and harp, provides dramatic timbral contrast to Bowden's horn. She performs with authority throughout, whether executing notes acrobatically or murmuring softly, and her playing exemplifies poise and clarity. While no details about the specific horns she plays on the recording appear on the sleeve, the performances suggest flugelhorn, trumpet, and piccolo trumpet were involved.

A number of the pieces are staples of the concert hall but sound fresh when heard in new arrangements by Rick DeJonge. Opera devotees will no doubt be captivated by Bowden's swift run-through of Mozart's “Der Hölle Rache” (an aria sung by the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte) and how effectively her vocal-like tone conveys sadness during Jean-Baptiste Arbin's Variations on Bellini's Norma. Sorrowful too are the stately performances of Bach's “Erbarme dich, Mein Gott” (from Matthäus-Passion, 1727), a showcase for the dark hues of Bowden's flugelhorn, and Alessandro Marcello's “Adagio” (from Concerto in C Minor, originally written in 1717 as an oboe concerto).

While they're outnumbered by their older counterparts, the contemporary pieces fare well: James Stephenson's Spitfire (2014) calls forth an emotionally intense performance from the trumpeter and string quartet; Catherine McMichael's August Beguine (2005) adds a different twist to the recording in working a mambo into its beguiling presentation; and DeJonge complements his arrangements for six pieces with the lovely closer Resolve (2018).

March 2019