Intrada

Maestoso - allegro - maestoso

Set pieces for competitions are no less a test for the composer, who is expected to produce something that is musically interesting as well as technically difficult, than for the competitors. Few have found the inspiration to equal that of, say, Fauré in his Impromptu for harp in D flat or Debussy in his Première Rhapsodie for clarinet, both of which were written for competitions at the Paris Conservatoire. Trumpeters agree, however, that Honegger’s Intrada, commissioned for the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale in Geneva in 1947, is one of the best works of its kind. The opening Maestoso is a matter not just of ceremony but also, where trumpet and piano are quietly joined in counterpoint, of linear expression and blending and balancing of colours. The Allegro section is a most effectively organised progression from, as far as the trumpet is concerned, silence to virtuoso brilliance. A recall of the first part of the Maestoso introduction dramatically, even ceremoniously, completes the structural symmetry.