Born in 1945 in Sunderland, County Durham, England, Edward Gregson heard Johannes Brahms’s music as a teenager and was inspired to make music his career. He studied piano and composition with Alan Bush at London’s Royal Academy of Music, graduating in 1967. He also completed a B. Mus. degree at London University. Today, he is an internationally renowned composer whose orchestral, chamber, instrumental and choral music has been performed and recorded by high-profile ensembles worldwide. Among Gregson’s most recent projects are ongoing series of his music on the Chandos and Naxos labels, the most recent release in 2022.  

Gregson’s reputation as a composer was initially founded on his repertoire for brass bands. He eventually widened his musical output to include chamber ensembles, wind bands, and full orchestra, all bearing his trademark stamp of striking instrumental color and timbre. However, British music writer Lewis Foreman suggests that perhaps Gregson’s most distinctive contributions to classical music are his concertos. According to Foreman,  

While his flair was evident from the first in his Horn Concerto (1971), commissioned by the British Federation of Brass Bands, the early highpoint was the Tuba Concerto (1976), written for the late and much lamented—John Fletcher. Gregson subsequently made an orchestral version, and this has become a leading repertoire piece for the instrument. He later produced orchestral concertos for both trombone (1979) and trumpet (1983), the latter particularly striking. The composer sees his Trumpet Concerto as a significant milestone in his output, and certainly with its dramatic accompaniment for timpani and strings it is an arresting work.  

Commissioned by Howard Snell and the Wren Orchestra (London) with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain, Gregson’s 1983 Trumpet Concerto was written for and dedicated to James Watson, one of Britain’s leading trumpet players. The work is scored for strings, timpani, and solo trumpet and consists of the traditional three movements alternating fast-slow-fast. Marked Allegro giusto, the first movement contrasts two main musical ideas: one rhythmic and angular, one lyrical and pensive. The second movement, entitled In Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich (In memory of Dmitri Shostakovich), employs the four-note motto the Russian composer used as his musical signature: D-S-C-H (in English, D-E♭-C-B). The concerto closes with an exuberant Finale marked Vivo e brilliante (lively and brilliant), a virtuoso coda for trumpet and orchestra serving as thrilling concluding punctuation.