Hummel’s Trumpet concerto by our leading trumpeter
View(s):Music lovers will have the rare opportunity of hearing the Trumpet as a solo instrument, when Naveen Fernando performs a trumpet concerto with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka on Sunday, February 22, at the Ladies’ College Hall.
Rare treat for music lovers: Naveen Fernando on the trumpet
Fernando, Sri Lanka’s leading Trumpet player and leader of the Colombo Brass Ensemble, will perform Hummel’s Trumpet concerto, considered one of the most significant pieces of the instrument’s repertoire. The Hungarian-born composer, Johann N. Hummel was a student of Mozart’s, regarded as being a Mozart-like child prodigy and, during his lifetime, became one of Europe’s greatly admired composers, pianists, conductors and teachers. This trumpet concerto is described as being in the Mozart mould with Classic Viennese influence. It was premiered in 1804 for a New Year’s dinner dance concert at the Imperial Court in Vienna.
Mozart’s first operatic success The Abduction from the Seraglio premiered one month before his wedding to Constance Weber exudes “boundless energy and good humour”, which is attributed to his happy frame of mind when composing it. The poet Goethe is supposed to have said that Abduction “knocked everything else sideways.” Anything Turkish was the flavour of that time and Mozart’s use of extra percussion in the overture, in particular, evokes the sounds of the military Janissary bands of Turkey.
Bizet’s Symphony No. 1, written at the tender age of 17, was never performed during his lifetime but was discovered in the Paris Conservatoires’ archives about eighty years after his untimely death at the age of 37. The symphony premiered in 1933 and has been considered a staple of the repertoire ever since for its ‘beautiful melodies, rich orchestration, and elegant charm.’
Ajit Abeyesekera, a co-conductor of the Symphony Orchestra since 1996 and one of Sri Lanka’s leading clarinetists takes up the baton for this Classical Masterworks concert.
Tickets and box plan at www.tickets.lk or in person at 113, Fifth Lane, Colombo 3, (opposite Café on the 5th), Abans Colpetty and Sarasavi Bookshop, Nugegoda.