Jolivet • Shostakovich • Weinberg

Jolivet: Concertino for Trumpet, String Orchestra and Piano; Rachmaninov: Do Not Sing, My Beauty (arr. trumpet and piano); Shostakovich: Piano Concerto

No. 1; Weinberg: Trumpet Concerto Selina Ott (trumpet), Maria Radutu (piano); ORF Vienna RSO/DIRK Kaftan Orfeo C220011 60:07 mins

Although only in her early twenties, trumpeter Selina Ott has already released two highly praised recordings on Orfeo which focus on virtuoso Russian, Soviet and French repertoire. This third disc follows a similar path, but the musical qualities of the works on offer are far more substantial. The Weinberg Trumpet Concerto, premiered in 1968, is a real find, covering a surprisingly wide range of moods over its three movements, from playfulness and sardonicism in the opening ‘Etudes’, to a much more introverted, even threatening, atmosphere in the central ‘Episodes’. This movement’s dark character casts a shadow over the brilliant finale entitled ‘Fanfares’ which opens with a solo trumpet cadenza peppered with witty quotes from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, Bizet’s Carmen, Rimskykorsakov’s The Golden Cockerel and Stravinsky’s Petrushka before wending its way into a nervy and emotionally equivocal conclusion. Ott negotiates all the considerable technical hurdles of the Weinberg with aplomb and receives committed support from the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Dirk Kaftan.

Romanian pianist Maria Radutu delivers the piano part of the Shostakovich with considerable brilliance in the outer movements, if not quite achieving the helter-skelter manic humour that’s projected by Boris Giltburg and the RLPO under Vasily Petrenko on Naxos. The recording of the Shostakovich is rather closely miked, allowing us to hear all the intricate inner details of the composer’s string writing, but sounding a little dry at times. Fortunately, this problem is far less noticeable in the Jolivet which receives a robust and highly charged performance.

PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★★