Review

Anthony Plog
Triple Concerto:
trumpet, horn, trombone, and piano reduction

Vuarmarens, , Switzerland
Publisher: Editions Bim
Date of Publication: 2008
URL: http://www.editions-bim.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Chamber Music

Anthony Plog (b.1947) has had a successful international career as a virtuoso trumpeter, teacher and composer. He performed as principal trumpet with the San Antonio Symphony, Utah Symphony (associate principal), Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, the Malmö Symphony in Sweden, and the Basel Symphony in Switzerland. As a soloist, he toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Japan with numerous recordings to his credit. Since 1993 he has been a Professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. He retired from the concert stage in 2001 in order to pursue a full time composition career. His works have been performed in over 30 countries around the world and he has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions. At the beginning of his compositional career he wrote almost exclusively for brass. In the past 10 years he has broadened his compositional horizons, and now writes in many different mediums. His works for trombone include:
3 Miniatures for trombone and piano (1994) 
4 Themes on Paintings of Goya for trombone and piano (2001) 
Concertino for trumpet, trombone and brass ensemble (1999) 
Nocturne for trombone and piano (1996)
Postcards for trombone solo (1999–2002) 
Short Meditation for 12 euphoniums or trombones (2010) 
Statements for contrabass trombone and piano (1994)
Trombone Quartet No 1 “Densities” for trombone quartet (1998/2000) 

The original version of the Triple Concerto was composed in 1995 and scored for the three soloists with orchestra. In 2008/2009 Plog composed a piano reduction as well as a version with wind band accompaniment. All versions are published by Editions Bim.

The composer stated the following:
The Triple Concerto exploits many different textures both within the solo group and the orchestra itself. Each of the solo instruments is called upon at times to play as a soloist, and at other times as a chamber musician.
In the first movement a calm and lyrical introduction begins the piece, only to be interrupted by (an) energetic allegro. The second movement develops around an extremely static choral for the strings and features individual solos. The third movement is again an allegro, and after a cadenza featuring the three soloists, thematic material from the first movement is re-introduced, leading to a final coda.

The Triple Concerto solo parts are playable by accomplished students with access to a professional level pianist. Its musical style features chromaticism that is firmly anchored to tonal centers that are not functional in the traditional sense. The writing for brass is, as might be expected, quite idiomatic. The trombone part is challenging but is quite reasonable in its tessitura, endurance and range demands. For those familiar with the composer’s Postcards, the Triple Concerto trombone part is not nearly as demanding technically. This is an interesting and exciting work in what is a limited genre.

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico