The marvelously named Norwegian trumpeter
Tine Thing Helseth has made a splash as much with bold programming decisions as with her considerable technical skills, and this trumpet-and-piano recital seems likely to grow her reputation still further. She again makes use of unexpected arrangements, but a surprising proportion of the album is made up of works originally written for the trumpet, and most of them unknown at that. These are placed toward the beginning of the program, but
Helseth keeps things moving along by force of personality. The album opens with the jazzy Impromptu of
Jacques Ibert, a work that's just plain fun, and the high spirits let up only for songful lyric interludes like the Légende of
George Enescu or the transcribed Five Songs of
Giacomo Puccini. The highlight, in fact, may be
Hindemith's Trumpet Sonata, to which
Helseth brings an unusual most welcome dose of humor. After that there's a trio of crowd-pleasers by
Rachmaninov and
Kreisler, with
Rachmaninov's Vocalise coming closer to the vocal essence of that piece than most other instrumental versions. Even the obligatory modern Scandinavian work,
Ølstein Sommerfeldt's Divertimento for solo trumpet, Op. 21, is lively throughout.
Helseth seems very likely to become a major star of her instrument.