| Two new CDs by Peter Masseurs | January 4, 2005  |
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Peter Masseurs, principal trumpet with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, has recently released two new CDs. The first one is a solo CD in the series “Soloists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra”, the second one a live recording of the world-premiere of Willem Jeths’ flugelhorn concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Peter Masseurs was born in Halsteren in the Dutch province of North Brabant. In 1963 he joined the Band of the Marines; in March 1970 he was appointed principal trumpet with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Since he was appointed to that post with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1982, he has been the soloist in performances of concertos by Haydn, Tomasi, Zimmermann and Shostakovich, and in September 2002 in Willem Jeths’ Concerto for Flugelhorn, which was commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and written especially for Masseurs. He has also performed as a soloist with a large number of other orchestras in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. He has played in a variety of ensembles including the ASKO-Schönberg Ensemble, the Viotta Ensemble, the Amsterdam Bach Soloists and the Ebony Band. On the first CD: “Soloists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra”, Masseurs plays the well-known Second trumpet concerto by André Jolivet, as well as less well-known works. The Intrada for trumpet solo by Dutch composer Otto Ketting was written in 1958 for Ketting’s own exam at the The Hague Conservatory. Martijn Padding’s One Trumpet was written especially for Peter Masseurs. The piece was not only dedicated to him, but also designed to portray this trumpet-player and his special musical and instrumental skills. “Don’t pull any punches,” is what Masseurs told the composer, and he certainly got what he asked for. Theo Loevendie’s Golliwogg’s other dances was inspired by Claude Debussy’s Sonatas. Debussy had plans for six sonatas for different instruments. Unfortunately only three were finished when he died. One of the others was intended for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet and piano. The Serenata, op. 46, by Alfredo Casella (1927) is based on six 18th-century dances: Marcia, Minuetto, Notturno, Gavotta, Cavatina and Finale (Tarantella).
The second CD “Three Concertos for a New Century” consists of live recordings of three concertos, commissioned and played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a concerto for horn by Geert van Keulen, a clarinet concerto by Theo Loevendie and a concerto for flugelhorn by Willem Jeths. Jeths was first inspired to write a concerto for flugelhorn when he heard a recording of Dutch jazz legend Ack van Rooyen. He was very impressed with the dark timbre of the instrument. Jeths is a composer who works primary with colors. To emphasize the dark color of the flugelhorn, he frequently uses the pedal register of the instrument. In addition he wrote for a very dark symphony orchestra, with contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon, bass trombone, tuba, bass marimba, ten cellos and eight double basses. A synthesizer amplifies the double basses one octave lower. At the end of the work the organ plays a tone cluster of f, f-sharp, g, g-sharp, a in the lowest sub-octave. The exotic percussion section has instruments like the tubes, boobams, lions roar, vibraslap, steel drums and a wind machine. The CD is on the NorthWest Classic Records label. Track list for “Soloists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra”:
Track list for “Three Concertos for a New Century”:
Peter Masseurs played a Callet trumpet on "Soloists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra" and on a Hub van Laar flugelhorn on "Three Concertos for a New Century". Websites: Updated 4th April 2006 - corrected instrument manufacturer sentence, added manufacturer links.
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