A rare spotlight fell on the trombone in Birmingham's Symphony Hall as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Kazuki Yamada, presented the UK premiere of a significant new work for the instrument.
A Sonic Ocean for a Trombone Pioneer
The centrepiece was Dai Fujikura's Vast Ocean II (2023), a reworking of his 2005 trombone concerto. The soloist was Peter Moore, the Belfast-born virtuoso whose career has been marked by record-breaking achievements, including winning BBC Young Musician at age 12 in 2008 and later performing as the Proms' first solo trombonist in nearly two decades in 2022.
Now a principal player with the London Symphony Orchestra, Moore is a renowned champion of his instrument. Fujikura's piece, inspired by Stanisław Lem's sci-fi novel Solaris, paints the orchestra as a sentient, teeming ocean against which the trombone, a human explorer, journeys. The composer quipped that Moore was the "George Clooney" of this adventure.
The musical reality, however, was more abstract. Fujikura crafted a pointillist, glinting soundscape where conventional development gave way to circling echoes and dissolving textures. Peter Moore demonstrated masterful control, making the trombone sing, sigh, and howl, extracting shifting colours from repeated notes while Yamada and the CBSO conjured a rich, elusive backdrop.
From Other Worlds to Earthy Landscapes
After the interval, the programme shifted to more familiar terrain with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1. This is music that suits Yamada's instinctive, heart-on-sleeve conducting style, and the performance was painted in broad, vibrant strokes.
The second movement's Ländler swayed with a woozy, schnapps-infused charm, while the finale built to a blinding climax with thunderous timpani and the brass section triumphantly rising to their feet. The third movement's funeral march, however, hinted at a missing depth. While the klezmer-esque themes carried a sleazy grotesquerie, the performance perhaps lacked the bleak, nihilistic counterweight essential to the symphony's overarching journey from life to optimism.
A Lasting Impact for the Trombone
The evening's true revelation remained Fujikura's concerto and Moore's compelling advocacy. Such premieres are pivotal for expanding the solo repertoire of instruments often in the shadows. This performance in Birmingham not only showcased Peter Moore's extraordinary artistry but also solidified the growing importance of contemporary composers like Dai Fujikura in challenging and enriching the orchestral canon. The concert proved that even the most elusive musical questions, posed through the bell of a trombone, can resonate powerfully.
