First performance by Visa Haarala (trumpet), Australian Chamber Orchestra, Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music, Canberra, 9 November 2019
Program note
Fanfare for Neverland began as an early sketch for my opera Peter Pan, written, with Sue Smith, for Gondwana Choirs. The music was intended to be heard as Peter, Wendy and her brothers arrive in Neverland after their long flight from a nursery in Edwardian London.
In the end, only fragments of the fanfare actually made it into the opera, though rather more turns up in the second movement of my trio, Never, But I like to think that Fanfare for Neverland encapsulates the spirit of the opera and the Peter Pan story.
© A.F.
Reviews
The luminous solo trumpet call of Andrew Ford's Fanfare for Neverland.
Eamonn Kelly, The Australian
Dvorak’s finale begins with trumpet fanfare, a moment anticipated at the start of the concert with Andrew Ford’s Fanfare for Neverland for solo trumpet played with brilliant control by Visa Haarala. Starting with short, initially tentative, rhythmic and pitch motives, the work opens out progressively into the instrument's higher regions as though learning to fly.
Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald
With the hall in darkness, guest principal trumpet, Visa Haarala ... stood in the balcony, his bright and happy trumpet true to every note of Australian composer, Andrew Ford’s Fanfare for Neverland ... At times the short piece was reminiscent of the 'Last Post' in its melancholy, but mostly it did as fanfares do, making an announcement, calling on double/triple tonguing and rapid note sequences, exploring the trumpet’s full range. Haarala produced extraordinary clarity in his playing, delivering a crisp sound that filled the expansive room effortlessly.
Clinton White, Limelight