Trumpet Concerto (Davies)

The Trumpet Concerto has a duration of roughly 28 minutes and is composed in three connected movements:

1. Adagio – Allegro
2. Adagio molto
3. Presto

Parts of the music are derived from the medieval plainsong Franciscus pauper et humilis, commonly associated with the Roman Catholic friar Francis of Assisi about whom Davies had intended to compose an unrealized opera.[1]

The Trumpet Concerto has been praised by music critics. Arnold Whittall of Gramophone wrote:

To an even greater extent than his earlier concertos it fills its generous length with an absorbing elaboration of diverser ideas, some brazenly bold, others affectingly simple. No doubt the nature of the trumpet itself helps to ensure that this is so, and Davies has written a solo part that is not only brilliant—and brilliantly effective—but that strikes sparks off an imposing orchestral contribution.[3]

The work was similarly praised by Bernard Holland of The New York Times, who observed:

Potentially weighted down by so much gloom, the listener needs special points of interest, and Mr. Davies's varied speeds within what seems to be a single speed provide them. The casual ear perceives unified surges; the careful ear notes pools of slowness in the midst of them. In team-sport athletics, where evasiveness on the run is a stock in trade, an applicable phrase exists: change of pace.[4]

• List of compositions by Peter Maxwell Davies