So, it was quite fitting that my return to performing work after my self-enforced (and unfunded, I might add) paternity leave was to play the valved F trumpet (along with natural trumpets in a plethora of keys) with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset, who were making a recording of nineteenth-century music by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871), Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848), Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–1787), Fromental Halévy (1799–1862), Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864), Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870), and Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868).

Recording took place at the Riffx Studio at La Seine Musicale from 13 to 16 September 2026 (with prior rehearsals from 9–11 September) and it featured the exemplary tenor soloist Kévin Amiel, who served as our modern-day musical representative of Adolphe Nourrit (1802—1839). The idea behind this somewhat autobiographical recording was to record works originally written for, or performed by, this renowned French operatic tenor and professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

In 2021, we recorded a similar album of nineteenth-century music, based on the life of the French soprano Pauline Viardot, which featured the modern-day soprano soloist Marina Viotti.

Nourrit had a fascinating life: he was the Paris Opéra’s leading tenor from 1826 to 1836, and composers valued his input when developing new works. He also wrote the text for Éléazar’s famous aria, ‘Rachel, quand du Seigneur’, in Halévy’s La Juive. He died in tragic circumstances and Frédéric Chopin played the organ at his memorial service in Marseille, as his body was in transit back to Paris from Italy. He was subsequently buried at Montmartre cemetery.

We recorded movements from Auber’s Le Philtre, Cherubini’s Ali Baba, Donizetti’s Poliuto, Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, Halévy’s La Juive, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, Mercadante’s Il Giuramento, and Rossini’s Guillaume Tell—including the famous overture and the rousing tenor aria ‘Asile héréditaire’. It was a particular joy for me (1st trumpet) and William Russell (2nd trumpet) to play valved F trumpets in Donizetti’s Poliuto, which was written in 1838. It was not premiered for ten years, as it was initially banned. Donizetti reworked it into Les Martyrs—a work I had the pleasure of performing and recording with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2014.

It was reassuring for me to know that the valved trumpet was a sensible choice for this repertoire, based on the evidence in the Araldi method that I had just finished editing!

I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I stayed in a lovely AirBnB with my wife and my son, on an island in the Seine: Île Saint-Germain. The scenic journey to La Seine Musicale involved crossing the river, and walking along a riverside path to the next island, Île Seguin, and into the Riffx studio at La Seine Musicale.

We travelled back to London one evening ahead of schedule: it was worth changing our plans to get back in time to perform at St. James’ Palace in London (Handel’s Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) from the Coronation Anthems) with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir under the direction of Christophe Rousset! In fact, the performance featured five directors, namely Christophe Rousset, Sir Mark Elder, Jonathan Sells, Jakob Lehmann, and Mark Padmore.