Search - Turnage, Gruber, Hardenberger :: From the Wreckage / Aerial / Jet Stream

A fascinating disc combining brilliant virtuosity and outstanding contemporary works. H.K. Gruber's Aerial is an accessible two-movement trumpet concerto. Its first movement depicts an imaginary landscape of northern wastes and begins with thin-air sonorities that turn into weightier passages that climb and recede. The second movement is more earthbound in its wit, with the trumpet, often muted, now soaring, now quizzical, partnered by the powerful rhythms of the orchestra. Peter Eötvös, who conducts the Gothenburg Symphony in all three works, contributes his Jet Stream, which opens with a cross between a foghorn and a Bronx cheer, and continues to explore spacy textures and a fascinating solo part, part improvisational, in which the soloist is shadowed by a trio of trumpeters. Mark-Anthony Turnage's From the Wreckage moves from desolation to assertive hope, with compact orchestration, lyric passages of great beauty, and raucous jazz rhythms ? a heady mix that works here. Hardenberger is amazing throughout all three works, playing a variety of instruments, from flugelhorn to standard trumpet to the brilliant high piccolo trumpet, plus a range of mutes and altered trumpets as well. This one's not just for trumpet aficionados, it will intrigue anyone interested in the best of the current contemporary classical scene. --Dan Davis