Enescu, Hindemith, Ligeti, Piazzolla, Chabrier and film music

Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet and Roland Pöntinen, piano

Enescu: Légende

Hindemith: Trumpet sonata

Ligeti: Mysteries of the Macabre, arr. Elgar Howarth

Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango, arr. Roland Pöntinen.

Chabrier: Bourée fantastique [piano solo]

Film music by Piazzolla, Nino Rota and Charlie Chaplin

Wigmore Hall, 2 October 2010

This wide-ranging programme, played to a near capacity filled hall, reflected Hardenberger's wide-ranging musical tastes and the versatility of his instrument. However, just as evident and important throughout the evening was the experienced partnership of accompanist  Roland Pöntinen.

Two essential pieces of twentieth century trumpet repertoire began the evening. Enescu's Légende, dating from 1906, requires the soloist to unify the contrasting emotions of dignified reverie and impassioned flourishes enlivened by precise triple-tonguing into a convincing whole. Technically, Hardenberger met the challenges head-on whilst  Pöntinen made light of Enescu's imposing piano writing to leave a dignified impression with the work's muted ending.

Hindemith's sonata, written in 1939, is very much of its time and reflects the composer's personality in writing that is terse, forthright and earnestly meant. These are however qualities that do not always endear Hindemith to modern audiences. Pöntinen made the most of what subtlety there is in the otherwise insistent opening movement, with much of the same feeling also pervading the middle movement. Rightly, the performance proved unwilling to settle into mere routine. With the piano setting the closing movement's solemn mood effectively, Hardenberger heightened the sense of inner grief Hindemith portrays through evenness of phrase and restraint in a carefully marked performance.

The arrangement of three arias from Ligeti's opera Le Grand Macabre by conductor and former orchestral trumpeter Elgar Howarth immediately secured a change of atmosphere in the hall, with both players interspersing their parts with hisses and snatched speech amongst other effects. This brought some surface humour and preserved a merest hint of operatic performance to an otherwise negligible trifle.

The second half was on the whole more light-hearted. Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango is an entertaining traversal of episodes in the evolution of the genre's style. Bordel (stylistically c. 1900) might have done with a touch more freedom in its inflections, as it sounded a little stilted. Cafe (1930) carried brightness of tone about it; Night club (1960) an apt sultriness. The concluding Concert d'Aujourd'hui (1980s) was clearly articulated and played effectively with its insistent rhythmic patterns.

Much the same might be said for Roland Pöntinen's playing of Chabrier's Bourée fantastique as a solo interlude, even if it sat somewhat oddly in the context of the programme.  Its difficulties were made light of and premonitions of Debussy and Ravel made unobtrusively apparent.

To close, Hardenberger announced a “strange little suite” compiled from music by Rota, Chaplin and Piazzolla. A summation of the evening's main qualities was to be had as Hardenberger switched between instruments to achieve differing sounds with assurity of tone, legato line and precise dynamic control, all the while neatly underlined by  Pöntinen's collaboration.

Evan Dickerson