Interview, Matilda Lloyd on 'Casta Diva'

Released last Friday, Matilda Lloyd's Chandos debut is a gorgeous collection of aria variations for trumpet and ensemble - drawing on the legacy of the great trumpet and cornet players of the Romantic era, who established the instrument's lyrical, expressive credentials. None more so than influential performer and pedagogue Jean-Baptiste Arban, whose cornet method still shapes learners' technical development to this day, and whose variations on popular melodies of his time formed the inspiration for Lloyd's album 'Casta Diva'.

Matilda was kind enough to share some of her thoughts about the music on this album - and don't miss our exclusive interview with her from London's Wigmore Hall, recorded just after her launch recital.

Image credit: Benjamin Ealovega

Your jumping-off point for this operatic album is, as you mention, the Trumpeter’s Bible – Arban’s cornet method. Why do you think his book from 1864 is still so central to brass teaching over a century and a half later?

The Arban cornet method is an essential book for every trumpeter! I think the reason it achieved this reputation of being our ‘Bible’ is that it is still the most thorough technique book that we have and the exercises within it are so useful that they have stood the test of time. It is a rite of passage to buy your first Arban - and usually trumpeters treasure one copy throughout their lives as it becomes more and more well thumbed! At the end of the book, after all the technical exercises, are 14 studies and 12 airs and variations (two of which feature on the disc). These are an absolutely fundamental part of a trumpeter's development, and I return to them again and again for technical maintenance and stamina preparation.

For the Rossini Prélude, theme et variations (originally for horn), you switch to the flugelhorn – how different does the flugelhorn feel to the trumpet when you’re playing?

The instrument is only different in so far that the mouthpiece I use is much deeper, which enables me to create as dark and rich a sound as possible. The actual technique of playing the instrument is exactly the same as for the trumpet, except perhaps needing a little bit more air to fill the instrument and make the most of its sound.

You refer a few times to the historically male-dominated (at times arguably outright macho) nature of the brass world. Many other musical bastions of male dominance seem to be crumbling lately – do you see the same thing happening with the brass section?

Yes, I do and it’s very encouraging to see! As more female brass players come into the spotlight as soloists or winning jobs in orchestras, they bring awareness to the instruments as something that girls can do equally well, which then encourages and inspires more young women to learn to play them. When I was at the Royal Academy of Music, the trumpet section had a 50/50 split so I definitely think that things are moving in the right direction!

Given the trumpet’s capacity as a wonderfully melodious instrument, why do you think its orchestral role is so often limited, even today, to loud fanfares separated by enormous numbers of bars’ rest?

Historically, trumpets could only play certain notes in the harmonic scale (especially when they had no valves!) so I think their role as a ‘fanfare’ instrument stems from that historical limitation. I also think that people underestimate the trumpet and very often pigeon-hole it as being a loud, uncompromising instrument, when in reality it is incredibly versatile! This is what I hope to demonstrate with ‘Casta Diva’; that it can be lyrical and melodic, highly expressive, elegant and playful, and also sparkle with virtuosity.

For some people, Casta diva and similar arias inevitably bring to mind names like Callas, Caballé, Sutherland… Are there any singers whose renditions of these arias in their original form you’ve been particularly influenced by?

I listened to as many different version of these arias as I could, including by Sutherland, Callas, Cecilia Bartoli, David Parry and Pavarotti. This added to my knowledge of the era (I did a paper on Rossini in my final year studying at Cambridge) and then I had a wonderful session with good friend Michael Craddock, who sings with the Gesualdo 6 and specialises in this repertoire, which was incredibly useful for refining the idiomatic phrasing and melismatic decorations.

This collection of lyrical aria arrangements could hardly be different from your contemporary-focused debut recording, Direct Message - what do you think future albums will include? Do you feel any inclination to record the big concertos, or are you deliberately avoiding them?

I’m very excited for my future albums with Chandos - we’ve got a concerto disc lined up to record this Autumn and other plans in the works too! At the moment, I am more interested in offering new ideas, or presenting works in a way that maybe hasn’t been done before. I also think that the standard repertoire needs time to develop before recording, so I want to perform them as many times as possible to cement my own interpretation!