TromboneChat

Hi everyone! I'm in the process of programming my senior recital right now, and I could use some help. So far, my program is:

-Grondahl Concerto (mvmt 1-3 or 1-2)
-Something "modern"--looking for something weird, so far my teacher recommended a piece called Aanraking, but I'm still open to suggestions
-Euph: Contrasts (Sy Brandon)--probably a cut from this
Break
-Alto: something lyrical/ballad-like???  So far all I could find is the Leopold Mozart piece, but I'd love some options
-Larsson Concertino (mvmt 1-3)
-Encore (if I'm feeling up to it): maybe Annie Laurie, Concertstuck (Warnecke), or Concertstuck (Muhlfeld)

I'm having some trouble filling in the gaps in my program, so I'm looking for some recommendations. Also, for the encore I was wanting to play something a little obscure, so even the trombonists in the audience might hear something new as well. If you have any recommendations for a piece like that that would be fun, otherwise I'll stick with what I've got. Thanks, I really appreciate it!

Check out the bessozi (spelling?) for alto. Easier than Mozart and it’s four short movements so you could leave a few out.

Also, be aware that if you are playing three different horns on the same recital you are going to have to drag all of them around with you for a few months and that gets old fast. Just my two cents...

That seems like a very long and charged program.

For your modern piece, why not find a student composer and commission a work? Getting to work closely with a composer and have a big input in the making of a new piece is a very valuable experience to have, and college is a great time to do that (much more likely to find an enthusiastic composer who will do it for free and listen to your input, plus you both have more time to spend together putting it together). Also you foster an interest in writing for trombone and help educate at least one composer in how to write well for the instrument (which, really, is in itself worth a lot......)

My opinion on the Mozart is that it makes for a very uninteresting stand-alone piece and would best be served by the trombone world by being left alone. It makes a lot of sense to perform that selection within the larger context of the piece it's from (which is rarely done), but very  little musical sense to just play the extracted movements as a concerto - they really don't feel like a complete piece (which makes sense since they aren't!). Both the Albrechtsberger and Wagenseil are far more convincing as stand-alone piece (notwithstanding the quality of the composition - I know a lot of trombonists dislike the Wagenseil), which is also logical since that's (likely) how they were conceived. There are numerous baroque arie da capo, for various combinations of 1-2 singers, 1-2 trombones and sometimes violins that are seldom played by modern trombone player and would frankly make for more interesting recital selections than the 3 concertos that are always as "the alto piece" of every trombone recital. Look at Stewart Carter's article Trombone obbligatos in Viennese oratorios of the Baroque, Historic Brass Society Journal 2 (1990), which includes a detailed list of many of those pieces. Beautiful stuff by Ziani, Caldara, Fux, Conti and others. Those deserve to be part of the standard repertoire (not that the transcriptions of baroque repertoire for other instruments that we typically play are not nice, but there is loads of repertoire that was actually written for us, why not use it). Not everything in there is easy to find in recording or sheet music, but there are some here who can help with that (I'm sending you a PM now).

I would not do more than one concerto. Remember, a recital is not playing music for yourself, but for the audience. What will entertain them? Even as a trombonist, once I've heard an entire concerto, I need a change of pace.

I would not do more than one concerto. Remember, a recital is not playing music for yourself, but for the audience. What will entertain them? Even as a trombonist, once I've heard an entire concerto, I need a change of pace.