I often have projects circling round in my head that I'd like to achieve in the next five to ten years, and experience suggests that more often than not, these products come to fruition.

I have to say that it hadn't really crossed my mind to contemplate recording a full solo CD with organ accompaniment. It's really not the kind of thing you get the chance to do, unless you move in circles where you meet super-talented organists who have access to a cathedral organ! Not only that, but to secure this venue for a recording when normally it's either open to the general public or locked at night. So here is the story of how my project with organ came to fruition.

Right at the beginning of 2013 I got a call from an old friend, Philip Wendling who is the euphonium teacher at the Strasbourg Music Conservatory in France. He invited me to visit his school to give a masterclass and recital. I of course agreed, and he informed me that my accompanist would be a lady by the name of Lidia Ksiazkiewicz. He told me that she was a wonderful lady, had a great personality and was also a wonderful organist. From the surname I deduced quickly that she wasn't French, and in fact she is from Poland, and married to a well-known organ virtuoso and the Principal of the conservatory in Strasbourg, Vincent Dubois.

Shortly after we planned the recital Lidia suggested we might think about a project at some time with organ, but I was at a loss to know what repertoire might work. I had just two pieces in my library that were originally composed for euphonium and organ both as I remember, from Scandinavia. So before going to Strasbourg I spent a few weeks searching anything that would conceivably work, and narrowed my choices down to around 20 pieces. I sent the organ parts to Lidia and while we were together in the middle of March for the recital, we managed to get some hours on the organ at the Conservatory to try out at least a little of each work. A few we were able to reject immediately, and we narrowed the shortlist down to about fourteen or so.

Lidia is the resident organist at Laon Cathedral in France. This historic city with its incredible cathedral standing high above all the surrounding suburbs in the city is set about 150 miles north-east of  Paris. I could tell from Lidia's many postings on facebook that she is incredibly proud of this organ, and I learned that she helped with the restoration of it some years ago, and completely cleaned out the organ loft which had fallen into a state of disrepair.

She is a truly amazing lady, with a strong and outgoing personality and a quite brilliant intellect. She is also an artist, and speaks 6 languages.

Shortly after our weekend in Strasbourg, we were able to fix a date for the CD recording, and she was able to gain permission for us to use Laon Cathedral for three nights, from 28 to 30th August. She also suggested that we might use a 2nd organ, in Guignicourt, about 25 miles away from Laon, the three Baroque works as the sound of this organ was much more suitable. A 4 hour session was planned for the afternoon of Friday, 30 August.

The repertoire list evolved as we got closer to the recording, and was a mixture of serious original brass works, originally conceived for trombone and organ, as well as six wonderful melodic works.

There were also the three works from the Baroque era, by Geminiani, Besozzi and Albinoni.

My week in France began with two days in Dieppe, and travelling with my fiance, Misa Akahoshi, we took the car on the ferry boat from Newhaven direct to Dieppe, a 4 hour crossing. We spent two days at a brass festival there, teaming up with my good friend Bastien Baumet, and performed a recital and masterclass. On the Wednesday morning we set off for Laon, and arrived in the city almost at exactly the same time as my wonderful sound engineer, Richard Scott, who had also made the journey from the UK.

We were able to use the cathedral for rehearsal from 2:30 PM even though there were many visitors walking round and taking photographs. We were way higher up than them as the organ loft was set up high above the main body of the church. Access to the organ loft was via a very narrow windy stone staircase. Richard's face was a picture when he realised how he'd have to carry all the recording equipment up to the location! Fortunately we received great assistance from colleagues and students that Lidia had co-opted to help. Within ten minutes everything we needed was carried up the stone staircase. As soon as we started to rehearse I was relieved to find that the pitch of the organ was almost exactly 440, and although Lidia had promised this in advance it was still a concern!

As we rehearsed each work Richard set about positioning the microphones to capture the very best sound of the organ, which for the most part involved flying a microphone from one side of the Cathedral to the other, so we managed to get the correct height. Any conventional microphone stand would have left us at least twenty five feet too low! Despite the vastness of the Cathedral the acoustic seemed really good to me, and I was relieved that I was going to be able to record from just about 12 feet away from Lidia, and so relieving any fears we had of  a lack of ensemble precision.

This wonderful sounding organ does have rather a loud ‘action' sound and Richard tried to calculate how he could minimise this with the recording.

We rehearsed right through until about 6pm, and then I had just time to check in the hotel, a charming place called La Banniere de France, just five minutes walk from the Cathedral, take a shower and eat before we met again outside the Cathedral at around 7:30pm. It had already been a long day but we were going straight to the first recording session. Now with all visitors, tourists and sightseers absent there was an incredibly special atmosphere within the cathedral. This was enhanced further as day became night and we just had the lights from the organ loft and my music stand to illuminate us. It became clear by around 10pm that we were not alone in the Cathedral, but we were sharing it with about 8 bats who started to fly the complete length of the building, swooping around like cyclists in a velodrome. I tried to block this out of my mind of course, but it did make for a very special first evening.

We got off to a really good start recording the beautiful Ave Maria by Schubert. Following this we took one of the biggest works on the disc, the Duet for Trombone and Organ by Gustav Holst. This is a really wonderful composition and one that since the beginning of the project I had dreams about recording with the euphonium. Its wide arching melodies, and potential for really enormous sound from both soloist and organ was a mouthwatering proposition.

Recording efficiently and thoroughly and not wasting any time meant that within one and half hours the Holst was complet,e and we felt elated. We went for a quick coffee break around 10:30pm at the cafe next to the Cathedral before returning to record Liszt's Hosanna, originally composed for bass trombone and organ. This too is one of my favourite works and playing very strongly in the lower register, trying to match the majesty of the organ was a thrilling time for me.

The sound of the organ in the Cathedral was really spine tingling and I really hope this comes across in the recording. We still had time that night to record the Chants Russe by Lalo, which is in fact the 2nd movement of his Violin Concerto. I have to confess I didn't know this work until a few months previously, when the Belgian arranger Luc Vertommen included this in a draft of a melody book that I would be involved with. I enjoyed playing it immediately and having heard the original on YouTube, totally fell in love with the music.

We left the church around 12:20am. It had been a very long day but very satisfying, and we slept well that night. The next morning at 10:30 we met up for the next set of rehearsals, which went right through until 2pm, concentrating on the works for that night. The hardest works were indeed very challenging and very modern in their language. The two works I'm referring to are Lacrimae Lacrimae by Sandstrom and Invocations by Gardner Read. Both are very challenging and needed very careful rehearsal, as we quickly familiarised ourselves with every detail especially in terms of ensemble and balance. There is also with the latter work some real extremes of range and dynamics, and rehearsing these in the Cathedral while tourists strolled around was quite an interesting experience! 

I took a little rest mid-afternoon to be in good shape of the evening session. During the second main session I was really happy to be able to record two duets with Misa, who is a wonderful euphonium player amongst her many attributes. These were Pie Jesu (Lloyd Webber ) and Caccini's Ave Maria. We can talk about the authenticity of Caccini's authorship another time. These two duets were recorded in very good time. The two difficult works took a great deal of time and patience from all of us, but in the end as the last massive chord from Invocations died away in the Cathedral, and we were informed by Richard that he was happy, a great sense of elation overtook us, and we went to celebrate with more coffee in the local bar. We still had more to do and we strove to record the remaining pieces that we had to do on this organ the same night, and we achieved this magnificently around 12:30am, with the final two melodic works, Sicilienne (Paradis) and Poeme (Fibich). If we hadn't finished that evening, we would have de-rig, set up at the church in Guignicourt the following afternoon, the de-rig from there and set up again back in the Cathedral to record may be one or two pieces. So we're all pleased that we managed to get everything done in fine style that night. Lidia encouraged me to play the organ once we'd finished recording on the Thursday night, and here is a link to this experience! Playing the organ at full power well after midnight, created a strange and exhilarating emotion !

The following afternoon we arrived in Guignicourt in time for an early lunch at the local brasserie, and we were allowed into the church at 2:30pm. This was a new organ, in Baroque style, that sounded and looked absolutely delightful, and I quickly realised this was a very smart move on Lidia's part.

It was also incredibly easy to record this organ, and Richard was able to set up, on the ground floor, in a little anti-room to the main church. Within thirty minutes we were ready to go and started with the first movement of the Oboe Concerto by Albinoni. I had heard several recordings by Maurice Andre as well as original oboe recordings, and was determined that this was going to be stylistically ‘right on the money', but retain a lightness and charm that the original oboe version possesses. On the disk you will notice immediately the different sound of this organ and the ambience of the smaller church, and I hope it will serve to provide more contrast and colour changes throughout the disk.

The two sonatas by Besozzi and Geminiani are really most attractive works in the slow-fast-slow-fast tradition. As I recorded these it really did struck me how sad it is that the combination of euphonium and organ hasn't been heard more frequently. I think we all know the reasons and difficulties involved with this, but I was thrilled to be doing it now, at this point in my career. It has been many years since Brian Bowman's Sacred Euphonium album was released, and I know from experience that many people still cherish this album.

I hope that this album, Hosanna, will also stand the test of time. As we packed up and return back for a final evening in Laon, it was clear that we all felt very good about this project, and I have to say a thousand thank yous to Lidia especially, for the conception of this project and her tireless work to prepare everything to make it so perfect.

Here is the cover for the new CD:

 The album will be released on the Bocchino label, catalogue number BOCC121 in mid October.  

The view from the top of Laon Cathedral, a sight I won't forget, simply stunning.