Trumpet recital

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 46:11 in length.The program opens with Alexander Goedicke's Concert Etude. Goedicke is best known for his operas and patriotic Soviet cantatas. This piece is quite different from his vocal works, being intended, as the title suggests, as both a technical study and a concert piece, much like many of Bach's or Chopin's keyboard etudes. The principal theme is light, fast, and technical. It is contrasted by the lyrical secondary theme. The concerto was written by another prolific opera composer, Almicare Ponchielli. His most well known opera, La Gioconda, based on Victor Hugo's Angel, Tyrant of Padua, contains the famous piece, Dance of the Hours. From 1880 until his death in 1886, he taught composition at the Milan Conservatoire and taught such people as Giacomo Puccini. The concerto, written in 1866, shows off the operatic background of the composer, particularly in the arioso style of musical expression. The form, popular at the time, consists of a bold introduction followed by a dramatic aria, operatic theme and variations, and a brief, driving finale. The Pastorale by Dwight Stone makes a beautiful transition and rest period between the Ponchielli and the Handel. Stone, currently residing in Hacienda Heights, California, has written numerous pieces for choir and for brass ensemble as well as music for films and commercials. I chose to play the Pastorale on flugelhorn because I felt the mellow tone reflected the lyrical mood of the piece. The first half of the program ends with the first two movements of a Sonata by George Fredric Handel. This was originally one of his little known XV Solos for a German Flute, [Oboe] or Violin with a Thorough Bass for the Harpsicord (sic) or Bass Violin, Op. 1 (1732). Since Handel wrote it for lighter instruments, it is a delicate style, challenging for a brass instrument. The first movement is slow and lyrical, even operatic. The second is fast and technical, similar to contemporary pieces by J. S. Bach. The second half begins with a Contest Piece by French composer, Georges Adolphe Hue. Hue' s best known works are operas, ballets, incidental music, and songs. This dramatic vocal trend translates well into the Straussian Contest Piece. By nature, it serves the same purpose as the Goedicke, but its character is more like a small, self-contained opera. It begins with a brash, free overture. The "opera" consists of a lyrical aria and a light waltz theme with variations. The intensity of the piece climaxes with an ever-quickening finale. Animal Ditties 2 was written by Los Angeles resident trumpeter Anthony Plog for the International Trumpet Guild. It and its predecessor each consists of four miniatures musically conveying short poems by Ogden Nash. The atonality of the piece makes it sound like a film score. The challenge for all three performers is to quickly change character and to make the parts fit together, despite the frivolity of the words. (See more in text.