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Connection: In contrast to most other pieces on my album, the Sonatina wasn’t written or arranged for me. However, I have a long-standing history with the piece and feel a real affinity with it. I first came across the Sonatina for Solo Trumpet by Peter Maxwell Davies in 2009. I was competing in the Kingston Music Festival and there was an extra £50 prize available for the best performance of a piece written in the last 50 years. My Dad bought me a compilation book called ‘Contemporary Music for Trumpet’ and inside was the Sonatina - a quirky, unaccompanied work in three short movements. I’ll be honest and say that I actually hated it to begin with! I couldn’t make sense of the awkward patterns, tricky rhythms and uncomfortable intervals. There was no recording to listen to, but my Dad kindly copied the music into ‘Sibelius’ so that I could hear a computerised version. Soon enough, I learned to sing the tricky intervals and rhythms, and I started to play the piece in a more melodic way. I was then able to embrace the ‘weirdness’ that had initially deterred me, and I’m pleased to report that I did win the £50 prize! I next played the Sonatina in my entrance audition for the Royal Academy of Music. The audition required two contrasting pieces and, thankfully, this piece is a perfect contrast to almost anything else. I was asked specifically to perform the Sonatina again in the second round, and I believe that it was my performance of this piece that helped me to gain a full scholarship to study there. In my first term at the Academy, I performed in a solo masterclass with a renowned visiting professor. Since it was my first performance at RAM - and I was keen to make a good impression - I chose to play the Sonatina. After I’d performed it, the professor said something along the lines of “I wonder what Maxwell Davies meant by that…” to which someone in the audience replied “Well he’s teaching upstairs today, so you can ask him!” The professor was incredibly excited by this and demanded that someone go and fetch Maxwell Davies. By the time they came back down, the Head of Brass, the Principal of the Academy and a number of other professors and students had arrived to witness the performance. I played the Sonatina again and, afterwards, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Max (as he was affectionately known) about the piece and its origins. Since that day, I’ve taken the Sonatina with me throughout my career and have performed it on countless occasions. It is a huge privilege to have made a definitive recording of the piece, and I’d like to think that it would have Max’s stamp of approval.
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