‘Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Poschner & Helseth’

Mahler’s Blumine started out as a work for the theatre before becoming a movement in his First Symphony and, ultimately, a piece in its own right in which the trumpet really comes into its own. A passionately lyrical dialogue emerges with the other wind instruments in this symphonic serenade. The Norwegian trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth revels as much in Blumine as in Doom Painting, newly composed by Nico Muhly. The American composer is supported by a counterpart who was far ahead of his time, Hector Berlioz. In the adventure for the ears that is his Symphonie Fantastique, he revolutionises orchestration, introduces new playing techniques and uses an idée fixe to portray the tortured artist’s beloved in sound. And he did it all in 1830, just six years after Beethoven’s Ninth!