Rudolf Lörinc played the notated first trumpet part, Moritz Görg and I (Russell Gilmour) devised our own parts in situ, and Tibor Meszaros played the other written trumpet part, with David Joignaux on timpani. Tibor and I stood on one side of the timpani and played the lower parts without holes, and the upper two trumpets played with finger holes on the other side of the timpani. Moritz looked over at Rudolf’s sheet music and I looked at Tibor’s, so we knew exactly when to play. It was fun devising our own parts. Moritz played a third lower than the first trumpet part wherever possible and we filled out the trumpet chords logically. There were a few moments when Moritz and I had decided not to intervene, to avoid overcrowding the fifth of the subdominant chord—we have only limited options for the inner parts in this case and it is easy to unbalance an F major chord with too many Cs. Generally, it was very easy to work out good voice-leading, resolutions, and cadences in the tonic and dominant keys. I enjoyed improvising a principal (or sonada) part, and I even ‘went to town’, so to speak, on a few of the repeated sections, playing semiquavers, and even semiquaver triplets at times. It was liberating to improvise different rhythms or figurations on each repeat. Subtlety is also important in this role, and I played fairly unobtrusively most of the time, only opening up on a final refrain, on an occasional accented cadence, or when completing a crucial harmony. 

The performances in Bremen also featured Rameau’s Laboravi clamans, and his Paroles qui ont précédé le Te Deum—in which Vox Luminis' singers sounded wonderful. The programme continued with Charpentier’s Second air de Trompettes. Everything was through-composed, so to say, with a solemn organ introit at the beginning and David Joignaux’s elaborate and improvised timpani solos before and after the Second air de Trompettes, as the choir changed formation. 

I was delighted to take part in this wonderful music festival with Vox Luminis and I thoroughly enjoyed devising my own inner part on-the-fly. With all the work I’ve been doing on my natural trumpet book recently, it was great to put the centuries-old advice by Praetorius, Bendinelli, Schmelzer, and others into practice. I was also introduced to the charming director of the festival who was very interested in the trumpet inner part realisation idea. It was also great to meet with friends and colleagues from the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra (including Annie from Australia, and Dasa, Miloš, and Phoebe from Festspielorchester Göttingen)—this really added to the exciting atmosphere of this wonderful festival. 

I had only been to Bremen on one previous occasion, performing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (from memory) with the Aurora Orchestra in 2019: I realise I've now given three performances in Bremen and I haven't read my part from the sheet music for any of them! I had much more time to explore the city than on the previous occasion, and I found Bremen to be a wonderful city on a small scale, with lots of characterful streets, maritime interest, and historic buildings to admire.

Our 7pm performance from Saturday 19th August 2023 was broadcast on television by Arte, and the 10pm performance was broadcast live on the radio: Bremen Zwei and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.