“Poor old trombones; there are so many quips,” writes Kate Molleson in Tuesday’s (6/20) Herald (Glasgow, Scotland). “The advice purportedly given by Richard Strauss to young conductors: ‘Never look at the trombones—it only encourages them.’ … By rights the trombone should be the noblest of instruments. It was revered by 16th century Venetians church composers for its antiphonal gloriousness, by Mozart for girth and glow in his requiem and late operas…. This weekend is trombone weekend: first (and possibly last) event of its kind in Scotland, hosted by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with a programme of trombone-related music, workshops and competitions. The orchestra’s excellent principal trombonist Simon Johnson features, as does the blazingly virtuosic Austrian septet Mnozil Brass.… Christian Lindberg, Swedish composer, conductor and uninhibitedly flamboyant [trombone] performer … will be conducting Wagner … and Rossini … as well as playing and directing Jan Sandström’s Echoes of Eternity (a concerto for two trombones and orchestra) and a piece of his own.… Lindberg has premiered more than 300 new works for the instrument, more than 100 of which are concertos, and has solicited new trombone repertoire from the likes of Berio, Takemitsu, Schnittke, Xenakis and Arvo Part.”
Posted June 22, 2017
