Of Distant Peaks

The lush harmonies in this lyrical and emotional piece will provide your students with a wonderful learning tool to improve listening skills while at the same time providing a spellbinding effect for the listener. Featuring a blend of soft textures full ensemble peaks a brief solo flute cadenza and a sensitive orchestration throughout the music effectively alludes to far off places.

Joby Talbot's Trumpet Concerto Desolation Wilderness was commissioned by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. First performed on 28th October 2006 by the Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic Orchestra at The Philharmonic Hall Liverpool with Alison Balsom (to whom the work is dedicated) as soloist and JoAnn Falletta conductor. The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra gave the Finnish premiére performances on23rd and 24th November 2006.The Piano reduction of Desolation Wilderness includes Trumpet parts in B flat and C. (Suitable for advanced players).'In Early November 2005 my family and some friends visited thehigh Sierra Nevada in Northern California. As on former trips to the area I was struck by the strange and disarming contrast between the bright sunshine perfect blue sky and warm mountain air of the Sierran autumn; and theoccasional icy chill - sudden drops of temperature when the sun vanished behind the mountains momentary glimpses through the trees of distant snow clouds over the highest peaks. Nowhere was this dichotomy more apparent than inthe vast area of forests lakes and mountains known as Desolation Wilderness. Here the twisted shapes of the aspens are testament to the destructive power of winter. Sure enough that night the first snows fell and the highmountain passes we'd just crossed were closed till spring.

This work was commissioned by Riga Youth Choir who gavethe first performance in Riga on 3rd July 2008. Based on a poem by Frithjof Schuon.The composer writes Frithjof Schuon's poem The Eternal Sun speaks of our earthlysun as a reflection of the Divine Sun which no earthly eye can see and the music reflects this in its mirror images. The opening music for the main choir should glow with magnificence and splendour representing theunattainability of the Heavenly Sun but the later passages especially the music for the distant semi-chorus should be more nostalgic and haunting.