Max Sommerhalder - Oskar Böhme, Trumpet Concerto in F minor, Op.18

Oskar Böhme (1870-1938), Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, Op.18 (1899)
Version in F minor, reduced for trumpet and piano
I. Allegro moderato - II. Adagio religioso - III. Rondò. Allegro, scherzando

Max Sommerhalder, trumpet
Mario Venzago, piano
Made in 1979, this was the world premiere recording of Oskar Böhme's now universally known trumpet concerto. Published in Moscow in 1899, it was the first large-scale concerto for trumpet and orchestra composed in a romantic idiom, in the key of E minor like Mendelssohn's violin concerto by which it was inspired. The solo part was written for trumpet in A. Later, the work was transposed to F minor to make it easier for the B-flat trumpet. At the time of this recording, only the F minor version for trumpet and piano was commercially available and the piece had fallen into complete oblivion. Nobody played it. This might be one reason why the protagonists of the present recording ventured to modify the piano part here and there, adjusting Böhme's somewhat homespun harmony to the more advanced idiom of the time when he published the piece and embellishing redundant passages in the way of baroque or jazz performers.