Living Toys in Budapest- Part 2

On 29 January 2011, the London Sinfonietta performed for the first time in the Palace of Arts in Budapest. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly interesting part for trumpet.

 Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, explains how the nerves kick in as the rehearsals begin:

Wed 26th Jan.

The first rehearsal for the Adès has just finished and I’m now sat in my second rehearsal of the day-Bartok’s 1st piano concerto with the Philharmonia, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yefim Bronfman. I feel shattered and unable to concentrate. All my confidence disappeared during the first Adès run through, when I began to understand the enormous challenges of fitting my part together with the rest of the group. For example, there is one extended solo passage where the group and conductor play in bars divided by three while the trumpet plays in bars divided by four.  At the end of the passage I was a full two bars adrift. The rehearsal was good though and by the end a lot had been achieved and my confidence was partially restored. I can’t make the next rehearsal because of my Philharmonia commitments so that’s it till Budapest now. Yikes!

Friday 28th Jan.

The group has left for Budapest this evening. Three of us- Mark van de Wiel (clarinet),  Byron Fulcher (trombone) and myself are committed to the Bartok series the Philharmonia is running at the moment so tonight we were repeating our Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall concert from last night in Basingstoke. It was a hard concert and I found it particularly difficult, partly because my mind was very much on the challenges of tomorrow-travel/rehearsal/concert, and partly because I had, today, to endure the yearly torture of finalising my accounts with my accountant. It took most of the morning and I was too tired to focus after a late dinner with sponsors after last night’s concert. The taxi is ordered for 5am tomorrow and I’m going try to make the most of another short night’s sleep. I’m feeling envious of my colleagues who I’m sure will now be finishing a splendid meal in a good Budapest restaurant before heading to bed for a good night’s sleep. I look forward to their smug humour when we arrive tomorrow.

To be continued…

Living Toys in Budapest-Part 1

On 29 January 2011, London Sinfonietta performed in the Palace of Arts in Budapest for the first time. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly challenging part for trumpet.

Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, gives us an insight into how you go about preparing such a piece:

I got an e-mail last summer from the London Sinfonietta’s Chief Executive Andrew Burke highlighting a concert in Budapest on 29 January. The concert was going to include a piece by Thomas Adès called Living Toys, a piece that has gained a certain notoriety among trumpet players. As I was a new member of London Sinfonietta Andrew was flagging up Living Toys well in advance. I had the music sent to me and at first glance it really didn’t look too bad; some tricky rhythms, a lot of mute changes and a couple of jazz inspired solos with plunger mute. Good fun but nothing to stress about. It was clear, I concluded, that some of my colleagues had been exaggerating the difficulties of this piece.

My smugness was short lived.

I soon realised that most of it was written in piccolo trumpet pitch, which is to say it sounds an octave higher than written. Stamina is one of the biggest issues for trumpet players and high register playing severely restricts the amount of time you can play for. 

This part felt ridiculous, full of relentlessly high passages combined with all the usual complexities of contemporary repertoire. Living Toys surely wasn’t playable.

In order to prove myself right, I tracked down a recording made by the London Sinfonietta shortly after the piece was premiered in 1994. 

My heart sank – John Wallace, Principal trumpet at the time, could play it!

I put the music on my stand and began the long process of preparation. Part of that process was the usual technical work-fingers, tongue, pitch, rhythm. Most of it though was a combination of stamina building and brain bullying-trying to gain enough self belief that I could come close to playing it.

By mid January my kids were begging me not to practise it any more and, while not confident, I was beginning to feel better about my prospects. Inflicting some overdue revenge on my drum playing teenage son was an unexpected bonus! 

To be continued…

The London Sinfonietta’s recording of Living Toys, featuring John Wallace on trumpet was released on EMI Classics in 1998 and can be purchased here.