Ole Edvard Antonsen

Norse Music presented Ole Edvard Antonsen and Håvard Gimse in concert at the Gustav Vigeland Museum in Oslo on August 29th 2004. After a wonderful summer with the trumpet off his face for five well-deserved weeks, Antonsen picked up his horn in the beginning of August and gave a brilliant outdoor concert to the inhabitants of Oslo four weeks later. The demanding program took the enthusiastic audience on a musical voyage from the Renaissance to modern times. Antonsen was not only accompanied by one of his favorite pianists, Håvard Gimse, but also by the first winds of the autumn, and boldly visiting birds!

The program constituted a collection of “favorite pieces” crowned by Antonsen’s uniquely beautiful rendition of Stanley Friedman’s Fanfare. We had been put in the right mood from the very beginning by Antonsen’s soft and lovely piccolo performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Minor. Then came a very effective piece written even earlier: P.J. Vejvanovsky’s Sonata a 4. This music was new to me and I very much hope to hear it again. Enescu’s Legend kept the audience breathless, while the next piece, Goedicke’s Concert Etude, put broad smiles on our faces. Gimse then performed 3 Piano Pieces by Sibelius followed by Antonsen’s mesmerizing solo performance of Friedman’s Fanfare.

Antonsen continued entertaining us big-time with 2 Fantastic Dances by Shostakovich. Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Bull, a close friend of Antonsen, would have been truly impressed had he witnessed Antonsen’s impressive rendition of his works Pastorale and Perpetuum Mobile.

After Gimse had performed two Norwegian listeners’ favorite pieces for piano by G. Tveitt and H. Sæverud, Antonsen made it hard for the audience to sit still by his discreetly swinging and very attractive performance of Gershwin’s 3 Preludes. Antonsen gracefully closed his concert with G. Paré’s Fantasie-Caprice.

Antonsen performed several times in Oslo later this season. On November 4th, 2004, he gave a concert in Sandvika near Oslo together with trombonist Christian Lindberg and the Royal Norwegian Navy Band. Lindberg’s double concerto for trombone, trumpet, and wind ensemble Behac Munroh composed in 2002 was one of the main pieces.

Christian Lindberg has also written a double concerto for trombone, trumpet, and brass quintet, Groundhog Mamba. Spanish Brass Luur Metalles commissioned and recorded this double concerto for their latest CD “Absolute. 2004” as part of their 15th anniversary celebration. Ole Edvard Antonsen and Christian Lindberg are the soloists on this CD which was recorded in Valencia, Spain, November 2003.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has commissioned Christian Lindberg to write a concerto for trumpet and string orchestra. The composition will be premièred by Ole Edvard Antonsen in February 2005 on tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by John Storgårds.

On December 5th, 2004, Antonsen will give the inhabitants of Oslo the first blessings of Christmas in Lillestrøm Church, accompanied by Kåre Nordstoga, the principal organist at Oslo Cathedral. We can hardly wait!

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Ole Edvard Antonsen

Update: Added photo 5th December