Orchestra and soloist in the Assembly Hall - please click photo for larger version

In 2002 the Polish composer Krysztof Penderecki composed new cadenzas for the Haydn concerto, dedicated to Norwegian trumpet soloist Ole Edvard Antonsen. They were premiered with the Stuttgart Philharmonic under Penderecki's baton, and soon also performed with the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Antonsen's performance on October 4th in Oslo was accompanied by Norway's Radio and Television Orchestra directed by Nicolae Moldoveanu (former student of Antal Dorati). The event took place in the old Assembly Hall of the University of Oslo, cherished for its breathtaking acoustic properties and expressive wall paintings created by Edvard Munch in the years 1909-16.

Penderecki has composed one cadenza for the first movement and two cadenzas for the third movement. The cadenzas let Ole Edvard Antonsen demonstrate both his amazing flexibility and his musicality. Arpeggios drawing one's imagination to Norwegian waterfalls were echoed by suitable melodic figures in minor keys. They must have been just as fun to perform as they were to listen to: what highlights! A big surprise towards the final parts of the 1st and 3rd cadenza was a warm, sensitive interplay with the horn section. This brought an incredible sweetness to the Haydn concerto: something to remember and dream about.

Ole Edvard Antonsen was the first brass graduate from the Norwegian State Academy to be awarded the highest distinction in his Diploma. Over the last 15 years he has established himself as a world-class trumpeter touring the American, European and Asian continents giving 100 concerts a year. He started out by winning 1st prize in the CIEM competition in Geneva in 1987: it was the first time ever that a trumpeter had won that competition with a unanimous jury, and it was also the first top prize awarded to a trumpeter since Maurice André in 1955.

Antonsen - and the horns - play one of the 3rd movt. cadenzas - please click photo for larger version

Ole Edvard Antonsen, not thinking much of competitions within the music genre, states that ".most performances have something positive about them. I find it very important that this positive core is encouraged; it's so terribly easy to criticize. One should instead ask what a musician wants to say with his interpretation, and why he plays as he does." Antonsen also claimed 1st prize in UNESCO's competition in Bratislava in 1989, before he entered the recording studios. His rock-inspired album Tour de Force sold over 140,000 copies in Norway (a country of just 4 million people), and made him responsible for an upsurge in young people's interest in starting to play the trumpet. This CD is finally up for a new release in January 2004.

Antonsen has a special passion for contemporary music and has premiered more than 40 works dedicated to him. But for some time he has also been busy making the third movement of Haydn's concerto increasingly popular among the younger generations of Europe. He therefore moves carefully between, on the one hand, satisfying discriminating and mature audiences with his elegant, exquisite renditions of classical and contemporary music, and, on the other, exhilarating and thrilling audiences of 20,000 pop enthusiasts with the same music. It is both what he does and the way that he does it that has established Ole Edvard Antonsen as one of our country's most cherished and versatile artists.

Ole Edvard Antonsen's new web site has now been launched at www.oea.no. Read his exciting story from the back seat of an F-16 fighter!

Website:
Ole Edvard Antonsen