Trumpet virtuoso knows how to entertain a crowd

Jazz and classical music fans in Kelowna were treated to a welcome summer visit from the spectacular trumpet virtuoso Jens Lindemann last week.

After a wildly successful free outdoor concert with the legendary pianist Tommy Banks, Lindemann headed indoors for an intimate recital alongside his wife and musical partner, pianist Jennifer Snow, at the Mary Irwin Theatre on Thursday night, sponsored by Chamber Music Kelowna.

Playing to a sizable and supportive crowd, Lindemann had the audience in the palm of his hand from the first clarion call of his piccolo trumpet from the back of the hall as he opened with Debussy’s poised and introspective Girl with the Flaxen Hair.

The program, humorously announced from the stage, continued with a variety of short pieces, mainly Lindemann’s own arrangements for trumpet and piano, and were delivered with the virtuosity and panache audiences have grown to expect from him.

Written in 1906 as a test piece for the trumpet competition at the Paris Conservatory, Legend by Georges Enesco showed off Lindemann’s vast technical abilities, from sinuous sustained pianissimos, to rapid double tonguing. This was followed by two Spanish love songs, Tus Ojillos Negros by Manuel de Falla, and Sin Tu Amor by Miguel Sandoval, which included the enthusiastic participation of the audience shouting out ole at strategically placed intervals.

The first half concluded with Three Preludes by George Gershwin. Originally for piano, Lindemann based his tasteful trumpet/piano arrangement on the well-known Heifitz version of these Preludes for violin and piano.

The second half opened with the husband/wife duo cosying up on the piano bench for a wistful reading of In the Dark by Bix Biederbecke. Snow then took to the spotlight alone with a tender rendition of Gershwin’s The Man I Love.

After a fervent verbal plea for compassion and peace, the couple continued with Piazolla’s poignant tango Oblivion, appropriately dedicated to the victims of the day’s earlier tragedy in Barcelona, Spain.

The Amazing Grace Variations followed, featuring Lindemann on flugelhorn. After the haunting overtones of the opening, the piece morphed into Dixieland style, and ended with a frenzied tarantella.

Sugar Blues by Clyde Mccoy officially concluded the program, with the couple returning after an appreciative standing ovation to play an encore, Someone to Watch Over Me by George Gershwin.

Sandra Wilmot is a Kelownabased freelance musician, composer, educator and violin instructor. She plays professionally with the Okanagan and Kamloops Symphony Orchestras, and is on faculty at the Kelowna Community Music School.