MARK DAVID

The Philharmonia Orchestra has a long tradition of using rotary valved trumpets for the Austrian and German repertoire and during my time as Principal trumpet I have used instruments of many different manufacturers.
Whilst I had been very happy with these instruments in the classical and early romantic repertoire I was less comfortable using them in the heavier repertoire such as Bruckner and Mahler.
When I realised that the orchestra had scheduled a performance of Bruckner 8 with Esa Pekka Salonen, I was determined to find an instrument that enabled me to make the sound that I wanted.
On trying the Schagerl Hörsdorf Heavy C trumpet I was immediately struck by the even sound and intonation.

Article out of The Brass Herald:

The Orchestra is in Snape on the Suffolk Coast for The Rake’s Progress when I catch up with Mark.  It’s a glorious summer’s afternoon - just the sort of day for being beside the seaside - but you won’t find the Philharmonia’s Principal Trumpet lounging around on the beach in between performances. Mark has been using his free time to train for a forthcoming Ironman triathlon in Austria.  He’s very busy with triathlons at the moment, he tells me but, in the winter, his real passion is skiing.  He’s a qualified ski instructor and in between orchestral commitments he’s regularly to be found in the French Alps, teaching or enjoying a run on the giant slalom himself.  But for Mark, all this sporting activity is not just about relaxing from the daily rigours of orchestral life. 

“I like learning new things myself, whether it’s learning to ski, or learning to swim competitively, I find these things impinge both on my trumpet playing and teaching.  There are so many parallels.  If you think about swimming, for example and playing a brass instrument, the prime thing in both is control of breathing- a rapid relaxed inhalation and a controlled extended exhalation.  It’s amazing how many more parallels one can draw.” 

“I also think it’s really important for the music.  For the early part of your life, you shut yourself in a room practising an instrument and then you may join an orchestra that occupies you full time.  But not to be too precious about it, we’re supposed to be artists and if that is all the life you’ve experienced, you’re not really in the ideal position to communicate the music to others.”

Finding time for all this energetic stuff as well as his music is quite a feat in itself.  In the past few years alone, his solo performances with the Orchestra have included Bach’s Brandenburg No. 2 with Andras Schiff, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with Ashkenazy, both at the Festival Hall and private concerts for members of the royal family at Highgrove and Buckingham Palace.  He’s performed with The World Orchestra for Peace under Valery Gergiev which brought together Principal players from all over the world, plays with the Nash Ensemble and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music. 

But Mark clearly enjoys the variety in his work.  He loves nothing better than to rise to the challenge of Mahler 5th, the Richard Strauss Tone Poems or the Stravinsky ballets, but at the same time likes to make the most of the times when the spotlight is off the trumpet section of the Philharmonia.

“Typically there might be a patch where the trumpets have a real “roast up”. We’re involved in everything, it’s really hard blowing, it might be technically difficult or something that’s really exposed and you prepare yourself for that.  But you can’t ask anybody to play at high intensity all the time.  Just like an athlete has an off-season, I think it’s quite important to realise that, as a trumpet player, there are times when you need to deliver and your neck’s going to be on the line and there are times when you’re going to be bored stiff.  But you ought to treat it as recuperation really, use it to practise something else or whatever.”

“One of the things I do feel really fortunate about is the colleagues I’ve played with in my career.  I’ve got two fantastic players, Mark Calder and Alistair Mackie in the Philharmonia section, and I couldn’t ask for better colleagues.  When I joined the Philharmonia, the section was John Wallace, John Miller, David Munden and David Mason - boyhood heroes of mine.   Before the Philharmonia, I was in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Opera North and both orchestras had absolutely fantastic brass sections.”

As for future commitments, well after the rigours of the forthcoming Triathlon, Mark will be getting in plenty of practice for the Orchestra’s forthcoming appearance at the Proms and after that, a tour of Europe with Riccardo Muti which is to include performances of Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy, a piece which Mark describes as almost a trumpet concerto in itself.

As yet, though, despite great encouragement from colleagues within the Orchestra and more recently at the Royal Academy, Mark simply hasn’t got round to commissioning any original works or recording a solo CD.  But, he says, although it’s not high on his list of priorities, he thinks it may well be somewhere there on his future agenda.   

TEXT: Copyright The Brass Herald - www.thebrassherald.com