by Patrick Randall | Classical Music Review
Rarely does a musician who has dominated his field for so many years have so little name recognition as Malcolm Boyd McNab. Hollywood’s most sought-after trumpeter, McNab is credited in over 1,500 soundtracks for major motion pictures and has collaborated with a wide range of artists in classical, jazz, and experimental music. His solo performances can be heard in the soundtracks for such films as Dances with Wolves, Independence Day, Air Force One, and L.A. Confidential. It was with great fanfare, then, that his first solo album was received in the trumpet community.
The first selection on Exquisite is Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D major. The concerto is the centerpiece of the album and one of the main factors contributing to McNab’s god-like status among trumpet players; for years, bootlegged cassette copies of an old studio recording (with piano reduction) have circulated from trumpeter to trumpeter, cementing McNab’s reputation as a formidable virtuoso.
The Tchaikovsky violin concerto, originally declared unplayable on the violin and even now considered one of the more technically demanding works for the instrument, is nearly unthinkable as part of a trumpeter’s repertoire. Double stops and harmonics aside, the extreme range and fiendishly fast runs of the piece make an attempt on a wind instrument laughable—except that McNab pulls it off, with minimal adaptation for the trumpet.
While the Tchaikovsky has a certain side-show freak appeal that alone makes the album worth purchasing, it raises larger questions about the sanctity of music as it was originally written. Brass players have always relied on transcription to expand a meager repertoire, and trumpet literature in particular was constrained by harmonically limited instruments until the appearance of the modern valved trumpet. It is entirely reasonable, then, that trumpeters would borrow compositions for instruments like the oboe, the organ, and even the voice. However, a performance of a famous violin concerto on trumpet probably should not be esteemed as anything more than a curious and technically impressive foray into the limits of brass. As with the second selection on the album, Bach’s famous double violin concerto, much is lost in transcription. The trumpet’s vibrato is incapable of matching the orchestra in the appropriate places, and its sound in general is a poor substitute for that of the Romantic (or Baroque) violin. Were it not for the demanding technique required to play the concerto, McNab’s recording of it would be no more valuable than a recording of the Haydn trumpet concerto played on violin.
Much has been said of McNab’s virtuosity, but his playing is not above criticism any more than his choice of works for Exquisite. It may be that he played with the recording microphone practically inside the bell of his trumpet, but his sound never achieves much resonance. It suffers from a lack of brilliance in the upper register and a lack of richness in the lower. The resulting tone is somewhat fluffy. McNab’s articulation is also poor at times. It is appropriate for the largo of the Bach double concerto, but it lacks any crispness or front to the note. Coupled with insufficient dynamic contrast, this makes much of the album, and the Bach in particular, boring. If McNab had not double recorded himself on the Bach, there might at least have been the creative interplay between two soloists to give the piece more depth.
The last two compositions on Exquisite are the most interesting and, unlike the first two, were composed for trumpet (and cornet). Bruce Broughton’s Saloon Music is well written and employs a lively variety of accompanying winds to create the feeling of something between a Dixie band and a Broadway pit orchestra. McNab’s style is well suited to the mellower and lyrical cornet melodies in the Broughton piece.
More original and technically demanding is the last piece on the album, Frank Zappa’s Be-Bop Tango. Zappa wrote the piece specifically for McNab (it is nicknamed after him), providing an example of McNab’s collaborations with high-profile personalities in the music industry as well as a testament to the versatility of his playing. Versatility has to be high on the list of talents of any musician who has remained at the top in Hollywood for 35 years. The Tango is full of complex percussive rhythms and difficult intervals, which McNab executes easily.
Exquisite is a long overdue album from one of America’s most talented trumpeters. Regrettably, the album’s selections emphasize McNab’s showmanship first and musicianship second. The Tchaikovsky is an impressive feat, even with heavy editing, but the Bach has no place on the album; a more traditional trumpet concerto would have rounded out the diverse compositions better and have been especially appropriate for a debut solo album. McNab’s playing is also disappointing at times. Given the wide range of music he plays for a living, his sound has surprisingly little variance. Exquisite is still worth purchasing for the Tchaikovksy, but probably not until it has leaked into the Amazon marketplace at a lower price.
Mr. Randall is a junior and co-President of the Tufts Symphony Orchestra.
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