Thursday 23 October 2025
6pm
Silk Street Music Hall

Diabelli Heroic Music for Six Trumpets and Timpani (arr. Wallace)

Diabelli is best known as the Viennese publisher of Beethoven and Schubert, and provider of the theme for Beethoven’s great set of 33 variations. These Diabelli Fanfares (early 19th century) are the sort of music which would have been played by horseback trumpeters of a cavalry regiment and show that trumpet ensemble playing was a living tradition well into the new century, existing on the fringes of sophisticated musical culture.

McKee Dürrenhorn Passage

Kevin McKee’s Dürrenhorn Passage is a 2009 composition for six trumpets that depicts an epic flight through a wild alpine landscape. Commissioned by Dr James Zingara and the Troy University Trumpet Ensemble, the work uses motor rhythms and soaring melodic themes to create vivid, immediate, and breathtaking imagery, transporting listeners to a realm of sweeping vistas and mythical beasts.

Ruggles Angels

As well as being a prolific painter and famous for his prickly personality, Carl Ruggles was an American composer, writing finely crafted pieces using “dissonant counterpoint”. During his 95 years, Ruggles left fewer than ten completed works, revising his works constantly searching for “the Sublime”. Angels was originally part of a symphonic work entitled Men and Angels which consisted of three movements: ‘Men’, ‘Angels’ and ‘SunTreader’, and at the time of its composition in 1921, only Angels had been completed. It was eventually published in 1925 scored for 6 muted trumpets.

Rossini Largo al Factotum (arr. O’Sullivan)

Since 1816, Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville, based on the first of three subversive Figaro plays by Beaumarchais, has been a favourite with audiences everywhere and remains one of the most frequently performed comic operas. The aria appears early in the opera and is sung by Figaro, a barber and wily servant who consistently outsmarts his less-worthy masters. Rossini claimed to have composed the opera in thirteen days, evoking the comment from Donizetti – who was even faster – “Ah, yes, but Rossini always was a lazy fellow.”

Stevens Triangles II – Segnali

Triangles II – Segnali (2010) is the final in the Triangles series but is titled as number II because it is actually a rewritten version of the second in the Triangles series (1988), which was never performed or published. All of the Triangles pieces are about timbre and space, with the performers being placed on the stage in the form of triangles of different types for each version.

Mozart Adagio for Glass Harmonica (arr. Wallace)

As well as being one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, Benjamin Franklin developed a much-improved version of the glass harmonica. It was in vogue in the 18th century, was used by the hypnotist Anton Mesmer, and was banned in some areas of Germany for its purportedly deranging effect on audience sanity! Mozart had been acquainted with the instrument during his teens and had even encountered it at Mesmer’s house in Vienna, but waited until his final year, 1791, before composing for it. This airborne piece owes its feeling of elevation to the high bass and shifting chromatic harmony.

 Plog Suite for 6 Trumpets

Anthony Plog is an American trumpeter and composer. After beginning his career writing extensively for brass, he now works in many different musical forms. He has composed three children’s operas, the first of which (How the Trumpet Got Its Toot) was premiered by the Utah Opera and Symphony. The Suite for 6 Trumpets was written for Bo Nilsson.

Morales Crystal Spheres

Morales’ many published works encompass a large variety of styles and settings. Crystal Spheres is Morales’ first trumpet ensemble work. Composed in 1992, and revised in 2011, it can best be described as an exuberant piece of music, employing elements of jazz, funk, rock and Latin. As to the meaning of the title, the composer states, “There is no special meaning. It’s just a cool title for a very fun piece of music!”

Programme notes by Will O’Sullivan