The first movement of the work began with some wide intervals for the soloists, both of whom handled the technical challenges with aplomb. Susan Bender's voice has a wonderfully clear quality, and Mr. Birch seemed appeared very secure with his technique.

The third movement was a dialogue between the trumpet and the voice, with the vocalist doing "scat" singing (dah-bah-dah, etc.). The piece is a very worthwhile addition to the recital repertoire, and was very listenable, and very entertaining.

James Thompson began his portion of the session with the "Leonore" call, and played it with lots of vibrato, and VERY staccato. He said that a famous trumpeter was asked to perform the call that way, because the action of the opera takes place in Spain! Thompson questioned the audience about the artistic correctness of playing Beethoven with a Mariachi vibrato, or, say, a French composer writing Spanish music, or Stravinsky writing in a Baroque style (Pulcinella). How does one interpret music like this?

Digital recording, said Mr. Thompson, has made players try to play more carefully, because every single detail is heard on today's very clear recordings. This tendency can make for sterile performances. One pays attention to the trees and misses the forest. He said that one comment he has heard about trumpeters in audition situations was that the trumpeters sounded "sad". By this he meant that too much of the player's focus is on detail, and the joy of the music is lost.

Vibrato was discussed as a tool in interpretation. It was stated that vibrato can be used as a Band-Aid to cover up poor intonation, but can also be used to increase the energy of the music. The musical example played was from "The Planets" by Holst.

Thompson addressed the consideration of how one sounds within the context of the ensemble, from the audience's perspective. Thompson played the opening to the Mahler 5th symphony to demonstrate that the opening can start from silence and be very effective. The audience will hear the trumpet because, of course, no one else is playing!

The subject of tongue placement was brought up by an audience member, and Mr. Thompson's reply was that projection and presence are largely a function of the attack. He advocated the syllable "tyoo", said as a French person would pronounce it (by forming the mouth to say "eee" and then saying "ooh").

Mr. Thompson played the "Rite of Spring" excerpt, not on a piccolo trumpet, but on a D trumpet. He likes the bigger sound of the D, and says that the piccolo on that excerpt sounds like an "enraged bee"!

It was posited that playing through the orchestral literature is not sufficient to keep one in shape to play through the orchestral literature! One must do other types of playing as well to keep in shape. Song playing was recommended.