On Tuesday evening, September 17, at St Mary’s church, Rye, Crispian Steele-Perkins was performing with Martin Bruce as part of the Rye Arts Festival. Crispian’s purity of tone and artistic subtlety have received critical acclaim for more than four decades now.
Frances Catt was in the audience: “It was a sublime concert. Crispian Steele-Perkins blew us all away with his trumpet, that is to say, his trumpets and horns of every kind and date.
“With his enormous good humour he entertained a rapt audience with his virtuoso playing (blowing) whilst introducing us to each of his array of brass and silver instruments – from a long time BC Egyptian horn through Handelian trumpets, post horns and hunting horns – to the contemporary instruments he so gloriously employs to give concerts, to enhance sound tracks in film and TV and to generally enliven existence on the planet.
“Accompanying – indeed shadowing him – was our own brilliant organist, Martin Bruce, of Rye Harbour. Every entrance of the trumpet needed an exactly timed chord from the organ – and Martin was there, pulling out a million stops, re-shuffling music, which was mostly on his i-pad, nestled on the console of St. Mary’s splendid organ. He and Crispian were in perfect sync at all times – two experts each in their musical realm – and we in the transept under the stilled pendulum were the ecstatic audience and responders.
“Besides works by Mozart (You can’t go wrong with Mozart!) and Haydn and Handel, William Boyce and John Stanley, we were treated to Burt Baccharat’s rendering of “Alfie” and, most movingly, Howard Goodall’s tribute to a hero of the Antarctic -“Shackleton’s
Cross” – the dying notes of the trumpet – and finally, softer and softer from the organ …
evoking the lonely cross planted in the ice which looks south across Antarctica – in
memoriam.”
Richard Martin was also in the audience. He commented: “Blowing one’s own trumpet” was a brilliant virtuoso performance by Crispian Steele-Perkins accompanied on the organ by Martin Bruce.
“As an instrumentalist myself I was captivated by the light-hearted presentation, the purity of tone and the flawless performance of Crispian Steele-Perkins. As a trumpet player myself (not in the same class I might add) I was particularly interested in the evolution of the trumpet which has been described as the closest sound to the human soprano voice.
“The trumpet has never been the easiest of instruments to entertain in a solo capacity at a social event. Piano yes, trumpet no! I had often tried to explain this to my mother when as a child she would (without warning) ask me to play to her friends at home. With much reluctance I would attempt to play bits of a Hayden trumpet concerto on my cheap and nasty instrument. The third valve was prone to sticking which didn’t help. In an effort not to burst eardrums in a small room, pianissimo was the order of the day. Much mis-pitching occurred before the muted applause followed. Mother should not have been surprised when I ran away from home to join the army.
“I only mention this experience because on taking our seats I saw a great many instruments laid out ready to be played: from hunting horn, post horn, flugel horn, cornet modern trumpet, piccolo trumpet and early valveless trumpets all of which require not only a good ear but a perfect embouchure. To be able to pick up each instrument from cold and produce such vibrant sounds with such clarity was amazing. Virtuoso is probably a much over used word, but not when applied to Crispian.
“I conclude by saying that no one wanted this concert to end and I can’t understand how the BBC apparently managed to not pay Crispian royalties for his recording of the signature tune to the “Antiques Roadshow”. He would be a very wealthy man by now and deservedly so.”
Image Credits: Kt bruce .