Jean Guillou

Concerto No 5 Le Roi Arthur Op. 35

Although the organ clearly represents the centre of the musical action in Jean Guillou's Concerto No. 5 'Le Roi Arthur', the accompanying brass quintet has an important role. Like the noble knights at the legendary Round Table of King Arthur, horn, trumpet, fluegelhorn, trombone and tuba group themselves musically around the 'King of the Instruments'. In the brass sound, both soft and dynamic, they lay the harmonic foundation, with the music written for them developing into fanfare-like figures. They always make a caesura when the organ is about to play its imaginative and virtuoso sound passages.Precision and technical assurance are required to orchestrate this picturesque sound puzzle effectively from a seemingly mythical time.