Review by Ben Goldscheider/Richard Uttley – Horn and Piano…And a Braying Donkey | classical music

IIn this clever juxtaposition of old and new, the luncheon concert by trumpeter Ben Goldscheider and pianist Richard Utley could not have been more resonant or satisfying. They opened with Schumann’s Three Fantasiestücke, Op 73, which is often the purview of clarinetists or cellists, but the full lyrical outpouring of Schumann’s romanticism proved better suited to the century. It also immediately demonstrated the boundless musical sensibilities of this duo, as they are equally attuned to each other and matched in virtuosity.

Simon Holt’s ‘The Bell’ was written for them in 2022, its catchy opening – slightly prickly and meticulously detailed – giving way to stunning inter-instrumental exchanges with the shimmering bell-like sounds at the top of the keyboard providing the perfect foil for the trumpet’s gentle phrases, the final statement of clarity an almost defiant gesture.

Oliver Leith’s “Eeyore,” another work premiered by Goldscheider and Uttley, already had the element of humor implied by its title. Any sentimental and bleak satire, it was merely affectionate, with the donkey’s braying brilliantly realized and the musical argument convincingly maintained throughout the work’s four sections.

Scriabin’s “Romance of the Century and Piano” is a very early work, full of emotion and a tantalizing, if all too brief, indicator of the Russian’s future trajectory, while Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Music of the Century” had all the conviction of a composer for whom the instrument, as a trumpeter, was always a powerful source of inspiration. This was a dynamic interpretation, with the cadenza-like trumpet solo bringing additional flourishes.

At the heart of the performance there was – like Schumann – another allocator, Mahler Urlicht. It was a nicely sly reference to the fact that this song, which later became the fourth movement of his Second Symphony, began life as the last of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) series. Goldscheider has more than a touch of magic in his playing, and this Urlicht – “Primordial Light” is the translation that seems best to conjure the light the unknown poet longed for – revealed in such expressive line and brilliant glow as to be deeply moving.