Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto

Miro Petkov plays Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto

Under the direction of Antony Hermus, the Concertgebouw Orchestra are performing works by Black American composers. The renowned trumpet player and composer Wynton Marsalis has made a career combining jazz and classical music. In his Trumpet Concerto, we hear a trumpeting elephant, references to the French Baroque style, the blues, Louis Armstrong, the European-Jewish trumpet tradition and much more. The soloist is the orchestra's very own principal trumpet player Miro Petkov. The wonderful bass-baritone Davóne Tines will sings several spirituals as well as Ol' Man River, composed by Jerome Kern 100 years ago for the musical Show Boat.

Nabors and Dawson

The orchestra will also be performing the Dutch premiere of Pulse by the young American composer Brian Raphael Nabors and William Dawson’s expressive Negro Folk Symphony, which was a smashing success the first time it was performed in 1934. Along with similarly lauded works by William Grant Still and Florence Price in those years, the work seemed to herald a more inclusive period for classical music, a change which ultimately failed to materialise. Unfortunately, Dawson would write no more symphonies.