Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 & Hummel’s Concerto for Keyed Trumpet

February Program

February 11-15
San Francisco (Herbst), Berkeley, Atherton

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Gabriele Cassone, keyed trumpet

SPOHR: Symphony No. 2 in D minor
HUMMEL: Concerto for Keyed Trumpet in E major
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 1 in C minor

Music Director Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra present a program of masterpieces from the early Romantic period. Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, composed when he was just 15, would gain great notoriety for the young prodigy throughout Europe. The symphony was actually his thirteenth in a series, and was originally numbered as such. The previous twelve “string symphonies” were intended as practice works, but the combination of Mendelssohn’s precocity with Carl Friedrich Zelter’s intensive training resulted in eminently worthwhile compositions that have been receiving some belated attention since their publication in 1972.

The program also highlights a rarely heard period instrument – the keyed trumpet. Introduced about 1800 by the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger, the keyed trumpet marked a step in the evolution of the horn. It lies between the natural horns of the baroque – those usually heard in a Philharmonia Baroque concert – and the valved brass instruments of more recent times.

Our guest artist is Gabriele Cassone, the Italian virtuoso and scholar of historical brass instruments. He will perform in Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Concerto for Keyed Trumpet. Composed in 1803 – and long forgotten until its rediscovery in 1958 – the piece is now established as among the most popular in the trumpet repertoire. Indeed, because historically correct keyed trumpets are rare, specially built modern valved trumpets are often used to play this work in its original key, E major. For our program, however, the keyed trumpet takes its rightful place!

The program also presents the Symphony No. 2 of Louis Spohr. Spohr may not be as familiar to us as Mendelssohn, but his contemporaries held him in high esteem – on par with Beethoven – and his work remains worthy of attention.

Join Philharmonia Baroque for this rare exploration of early 19th-century orchestral music – performed on the historical instruments of the era!

More Information

Nicholas McGegan
Gabriele Cassone
Louis Spohr
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Felix Mendelssohn