Three trumpet soloists and four centuries of music created a triumphal RDSO Triple Fanfare concert Saturday night at the Gaetz Memorial United Church.
From the first moment Red Deer Symphony Orchestra patrons heard trumpets sounding Benjamin Britten’s Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury from different corners of the acoustically favoured church, they recognized an extraordinary musical experience.
Richard Scholz, principal trumpet with the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, began by playing a complicated melody from the front of the church. Next, Robin Doyon, lead trumpeter with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, took over with a different fanfare from the right side of the back balcony. Finally, Adam Zinatelli a principal with the Calgary Philharmonic let loose with a third unique trumpet solo from the left side.
When all three merged their individual fanfares into a slightly dissonant, yet interwoven sound tapestry, a collective thrill went through listeners. It was a dramatic, memorable opening to a concert that ultimately left audience members on their feet, clapping for an encore.
RDSO music director Claude Lapalme admitted he wasn’t sure how his idea of bringing together the three principal trumpet players who were recently hired in Alberta would be received.
If the thunderous applause exceeded expectations, then the mix of music on the program — ranging from Josef Haydn’s famous trumpet concerto, to three baroque pieces, and a modern tongue-in-cheek Double Concerto for Two Trumpets by Anthony Plog — had something to do with it.
The talented trumpeters also have to share the credit. (Lapalme had earlier joked that three trumpeters were surely better than one.)
Between Scholz, Doyon and Zinatelli, the audience got to hear virtually the full spectrum of sounds the brass instrument can make.
In fact, the soloists switched horns so often that the concert’s final trumpet count (including flugelhorns and concert band B Flat trumpets) was 16, including two in the orchestra.
The Baroque pieces began with Antonio Vivaldi’s trumpet concerto, beautifully played by Zinatelli and Doyon. It was full of the musical echoes and flourishes familiar to fans of the composer’s The Four Seasons.
More surprising was the elegance of two trumpet works by lesser known baroque composers, Petronio Franceschini and Georg Philipp Telemann.
After a false start due to a sheet music mixup, Franceschini’s Sonata for Two Trumpets and an Organ (played by Scholz, Doyon and organist Wendy Markosky of the Canadian University college in Lacombe) transported listeners to the 17th century Italy with its stately melody that hid many demanding musical hurdles.
Telemann’s French and Italian-influenced trumpet concerto, played by all three trumpeters and a string orchestra, showed why the German composer was so highly regarded in his day (Lapalme said important commissions would first be offered to Telemann, then to his contemporary Christoph Graupner. Only if neither of those “top guys” were available, would they go to the third choice, “some fellow named Bach.”)
The musicians skipped ahead to 20th Century America for Anthony Plog’s inventive work, which references the Vivaldi piece, and incorporates both dreamy and comic elements, such as the use of sleighbells in the first whimsical movement. Scholz and Zinatelli wonderfully captured Plog’s varied nuances along with a chamber orchestra.
All three trumpeters played Haydn famous trumpet concerto with a full orchestra. The seminal piece is almost as familiar as the theme to Masterpiece Theatre, leaving many listeners pondering where they last heard it.
Doyon played the cheerful, but complicated first movement that ended in a breath-defying solo. The tranquil second movement was performed by Zinatelli with many long, sustained notes. And Scholz delivered the colourful, expressive finale with quick trills and the required gusto.
Because the audience was so appreciative, a “surprise” encore number was played — Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday. The upbeat tune was written by the “Norman Rockwell of American Music” (Anderson also wrote Sleigh Ride and other ear-wormish melodies). It required the trumpeters to use standard-issue concert band instruments.
But by that point, the crowd would have believed they could make plastic birthday party horns sound good.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com