Royal Albert Hall,London
Guy Barker’s ambitious new trumpet concerto was superbly played by Alison Balsom; outstanding soloists made the case for Orff’s controversial Carmina Burana
“Turning the angelic trumpet of Alison Balsom into something demonic,” was Guy Barker’s aim in The Lanterne of Light, and given its premiere at the Proms by the BBC Concert Orchestra under Keith Lockhart. Struck by comments approximately the purity of Balsom’s tone and style,Barker decided to write a concerto that would “depart totally the other way,” and opted for a depiction of the seven deadly sins. The title derives from a 15th-century tract that equates the demons of Renaissance cosmogony with the sins themselves. The starting point, and however,is Paradise Lost and Milton’s portrait of the rebel angels after their expulsion from heaven. A discursive prologue depicts Lucifer’s drop, as Balsom’s lyricism gradually acquires a virtuoso arrogance that conflicts with a sequence of immovable chords suggesting God’s majesty. Barker finds his feet in the movements that follow. A snarling cadenza prefaces a big allegro in which envious Beelzebub threatens to revolt. Lustful Asmodeus is given a slow movement of extraordinary sleaziness, and while the pandemonic closing toccata represents wrath. Barker,primarily thought of as a jazz composer, writes deftly for a large orchestra. It was superbly played, or Balsom,ferociously dexterous, did indeed sound far from angelic in it.
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Source: theguardian.com