Spotlight on the trumpet: Håkan Hardenberger and the BBC Phil

Håkan Hardenberger and John Storgårds

John Storgårds conducts the BBC Philharmonic

By Peter Connors, 06 October 2024

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“Hardenberger demonstrated the warm, expressive, lyrical side of the modern valved trumpet”

Reviewed at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on 5 October 2024

Strauss R., Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), Op.28

Haydn, Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob VIIe:1

Jolas, Onze Lieder

Mitchell, Both sides now (arr. Pöntinen)

Stravinsky, Petrushka (1911 version)

John Storgårds, Conductor

Håkan Hardenberger, Trumpet

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Wagner and Strauss from Sarah Wegener and the BBC Philharmonic

Leighton Jones, 14th March

Celtic legends and dramatic landscapes fill Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in an evening of emotional and reflective music under conductor Nicholas Carter.

****1

Watery worlds, rhythmic fire from Brauß and Hickox with the BBC

Leighton Jones, 7th February

Elisabeth Brauß excels in Ravel with the BBC Philharmonic and brings and unexpected encore.

****1

BBC Phil's Bluebeard's Castle eclipsed by Boulanger and Kodály

Peter Connors, 24th January

Anja Bihlmaier conducts the BBC Philharmonic in a moving D'un soir triste and joyful Dances of Galánta. Bluebeard's Castle, despite some fine things. feels less satisfying.

****1

Questions, answers and city nights: Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic

Leighton Jones, 17th January

In three hugely different musical voices, John Storgårds with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra move from the intimacy of Ives to the exhilaration of Adams, taking in Beethoven on their way.

****1

John Storgårds leads the BBC Philharmonic through Shostakovich

Rohan Shotton, 15th November

The BBC Phil's chief conductor led a relentless account of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, paired with Dvořák’s Cello Concerto.

****1

Thunderous Mahler from Elena Schwarz and the BBC Philharmonic

Rohan Shotton, 8th November

Elena Schwarz conducts the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler's First Symphony, Debussy's La Mer and a rare outing for a trombone concerto.

****1

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Peter Connors

Peter has been attending concerts and operas enthusiastically since his parents took him to see The Mikado in Liverpool when he was a boy of ten and to a “family concert” given by the RLPO a year or so later. Peter studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford and Law in Manchester. After spending twenty years as a pensions lawyer in Manchester, he retrained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, which took him to Germany and to Serbia. With the onset of the pandemic he returned to the UK and now works online and frequents concert halls and theatres in the North West of England.