DSO - 'Haydn's Trumpet Concerto'

Kenneth Young: Conductor
Ralph Miller: Trumpet

Dvořák: Wind Serenade Op. 44
Mozart: Divertimento for Strings, K 137
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3, Scottish

Dvořák’s charming Serenade evokes the old-world atmosphere of musical performances at the castles of the Rococo period. Then, in Mozart’s Divertimento, the DSO’s strings will be to the fore. Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto was written for an instrument that never really caught on. As a result, Haydn’s Concerto lay forgotten until the advent of the modern trumpet, and the Concerto, gaining a place in the concert repertory only from the 1930s.

As Mendelssohn said during a visit to Scotland (from his home country Germany), “I believe I found today in the old chapel [of the Palace of Holyrood] the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.” While the symphony’s Introduction is dark and brooding, it closes with a triumphant finale.

Marshalling the musicians will be conductor Kenneth Young, one of New Zealand’s most experienced conductors. Not only is Ralph Miller the DSO’s Principal Trumpeter, but he also performs in Dunedin’s jazz, musical theatre, brass, blues and reggae bands, as well as playing the bugle for Anzac Day dawn services.