Fanfare for Sydney Symphony trumpet veteran
Sydney Symphony celebrated one of its favourite sons when trumpeter Paul Goodchild took the stage for a solo performance 40 years after he first joined the orchestra.
Sydney Symphony celebrated one of its favourite sons when trumpeter Paul Goodchild took the stage for a solo performance 40 years after he first joined the orchestra.
The tall and burly musician, with his distinctive shock of white hair, glasses and goatee beard, has been delighting concertgoers with his pure burnished tone and musical sensitivity since he was 18.
The SSO’s connection with the Goodchilds goes back even further — his late father Clifford was principal tuba player for 36 years.
For his party piece Goodchild chose the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by William Lovelock, an English-born composer who lived in Australia for nearly three decades before he died in 1986. The three movements are designed to show the mettle of the soloist with fast runs, fanfares with rapidly changing rhythms and plenty of high notes in the two outer movements, and a melodic middle movement with the pastoral feel of a Vaughan Williams tune.
Goodchild’s majestic handling of the challenges brought a standing ovation.
DRUMS
The concert marked the popular return of Australian-British conductor Jessica Cottis, who was assistant to Vladimir Ashkenazy with the SSO from 2012-2014.
There are few more stirring ways to start a program than the work she chose, Sibelius’s tried and trusted patriotic tone poem Finlandia. From the opening snarling brass (read the hated Russians who ruled Finland at the time) to the noble broad anthem and the final gathering energy racing towards hoped-for independence, it’s a bracing ride and Cottis proved a thrilling driver, tight and concise with expansive gestures and happy to take risks.
The same was the case with the final work, Karl Nielsen’s massive fourth symphony, The Inextinguishable, composed at the outbreak of World War I. As a Dane Nielsen was a non-combatant but he managed to compose one of the great war symphonies.
This is an incredibly powerful, organic work which grows to an almost unbearable climax when two sets of kettle drums battle with each other like opposing artillery units and the huge string section finally answers with the “inextinguishable” force of life — and music — which overcomes all.
The orchestra was in top form — as was Cottis — and a special mention must go to the woodwind section for their beautiful playing in the central allegretto which introduces a welcome pastoral interlude before the violence restarts.
We don’t hear enough of Nielsen — the Inextinguishable was last performed by the SSO 32 years ago! It is music that has all the anguish and despair of Shostakovich and sweep of Bruckner or Mahler.
DETAILS
● CONCERT: Sydney Symphony celebrates Paul Goodchild
● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
● WHEN: Friday, May 11
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