“So often, when mainstream movie composers write for the concert hall, you can still smell the popcorn,” writes David Patrick Stearns in Monday’s (10/2) Philadelphia Inquirer. “Not with Elliot Goldenthal, whose For Trumpet and Strings had its premiere at Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia without any of the symphonic noir that marked his Batman Forever score. In fact, the piece asserted itself with such a distinctive personality that it was easily the most engrossing piece in the orchestra’s season-opening program Sunday at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. The competition was serious: Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”), a little-known Frank Bridge Lament, and Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, which reminded you how much modern trumpeters need fresh repertoire. By the time Goldenthal’s piece arrived on the second half, you were ready for Norwegian player Tine Thing Helseth to break out of the 18th century and into the 21st.… Helseth played with a kind of deep expressivity … Goldenthal allowed her to be a lonely voice in the wilderness in music that was far more restrained than what one is used to from Goldenthal until some of the final trumpet notes … It was a penetrating effect.” Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Music Director Dirk Brosse led the concert.
Posted October 3, 2017
