Haken

S (one of the brunettes) and I wandered along to the NZSO last night, with guest soloist Haken Hardenberger on trumpet.

A few words on him. The advertising guff paints him as the worlds greatest trumpet player. For a change, it's probably true. Indirectly he's the reason I'm in science. At one point I had delusions of competency as a brass player, then I heard him and James Morrison (no not the current piece of crap on the radio...) and the dream was shattered. So a possible career as a musician was scuttled and I fell into Science via English and Law :)

The gig kicked off with the Mozart symphony #35. the Moz I like kicked around with the Smiths, but this was alright. Well played, tight and it finished. Meh it's all I ask from a Mozart... Then Haken came on and played the Hayden trumpet concerto. This was the first piece I ever heard him play, so it was kinda weird hearing it again some years later. He is blindingly good, the sound so sweet, clean and gorgeous. He's also charismatic and hot (S's description, but I can't argue with her). I've heard the Haydn played by a few people, but no-where near as good as this. If Maurice Andre resuscitated baroque trumpet playing, then Hardenberger turned it into an art form. He came back and played some interesting almost jazz pieces by Gruber. Haken used three different trumpets for these three pieces, from our view (sadly behind him in the choir stalls) it looked like: standard, piccolo and possibly a baroque (D)?
The second half was the Schumann symphony, again not rocking my world. He's always struck me as a bit of halfway house composer, lacking the full coolness of Schubert, Beethoven etc. He's been described as whimsical, which I can see - but there were parts of lovely lyricism in the third movement, and bits of passion in the 1st and 4th. I enjoyed it, but won't be rushing to buy any.
All in all, nice balanced programme, but it was Haken I went for, and he truely is perfect.
B