Roderick
MacDonald
Music swept
R.I.-bred trumpeter to Germany and home again
After graduating from the University
of Rhode Island, Roderick MacDonald spent about a year at
his chosen profession, mechanical engineering. Then he decided to enroll
in a master's program at the New England Conservatory as a trumpet
player. And in the second year of the program he got an offer he
couldn't refuse. Famed conductor Kurt Masur hired him to be principal
trumpeter with his Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, one of
the most illustrious orchestras in the world. Felix Mendelssohn had been
conductor in Leipzig from 1835 until his death in 1847,
and many of the great symphonic masterworks received their premieres
there, including the great C Major Symphony of Schubert.
MacDonald, said
in a recent interview that he knew little about the orchestra when he
was hired -- he had to look it up in the encyclopaedic reference work
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. But he packed off to Germany,
17 years ago, on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Now MacDonald, a
born-and-bred Rhode Islander, is thinking about returning to the United
States to settle.
He has enjoyed his time in Europe,
but is not interested in retiring there.
Perhaps he'll
find work here as a teacher or conductor. He studied conducting with
Masur at the Leipzig Conservatory and has won a conducting competition.
In the meantime, he'll be appearing this week with the Kingston Music
Festival on the University of Rhode Island
campus. MacDonald performs Tuesday, opening night, in a Saint-Saens
Septet, and Saturday, when he will play a piece by Tomaso Albinoni on
the corno da caccia, a form of early horn with curled tubing and a bell.
Learning from masters
It's not that one
day MacDonald up and decided to become a trumpeter. Music had been a
big part of his life since high school, when he was in the Ponaganset
band and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, both of which
were led by the legendary Nedo Pandolfi, a real taskmaster. "Nedo was my
first mentor. His teaching style was good for high school students, who
were sort of loose guns. He took a strong hand, which was good." After
high school, MacDonald decided he should pick a more dependable career
than music, and enrolled in the engineering program at URI. In 1985 he
got a degree and began working in Providence. But even
during school, music played a big part in his life. During the summer of
1982 MacDonald attended the Tanglewood Festival -- the only non-music
major to do so -- and got a chance to work with a great orchestra of
fellowship students. And while at URI he would take monthly trips to New
York to study with William Vacchiano, principal trumpeter with the New
York Philharmonic for some 40 years. "He got you depressed, he knew so
much," said MacDonald. But it was not until he joined the Gewandhaus,
and got to hear great players every day, that he began to truly learn
about music. For operas, MacDonald said, he'd learn the parts at home
and be thrown into the performance with no rehearsal. "It was sink or
swim."
It's not that MacDonald hated
engineering. He used to sit at his computer for hours, unaware of the
time and not stopping to eat. "But," he said, "I never got rid of the
excitement of that summer at Tanglewood." The connection between
MacDonald and the Kingston festival begins with his
engineering days. An engineering professor at URI told Kingston Music
Festival director David Kim about MacDonald, who sent along a couple of
CDs.
Kim gave him a call and asked if he would come to the annual
summer festival. That was last year, when MacDonald was scheduled to
make his Kingston debut.
As
appears in the Providence Sunday Journal Sunday
Arts section
July 17, 2005
BY
CHANNING GRAY
Journal Arts Writer
“John Roderick MacDonald's road to the principal trumpet chair of the Gewandhaus Orchestra could have been scripted in Hollywood. Born in Rhode Island, he began his professional life as an engineer. When he found that unsatisfactory, he enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1989, while attending the Tanglewood Music Festival, he auditioned for Kurt Masur and was awarded the principal chair of the Gewandhaus.
It's easy to see what impressed Masur. MacDonald is an outstanding player who strives more for elegance and grace than power and brilliance. His style is regal and vocal, and his sweet tone is rounder and darker than we usually hear from trumpet players, baroque or otherwise. I would call it the quintessential German sound--from an American trumpet player. In addition to his work with the orchestra, MacDonald has appeared worldwide as a soloist and conductor. Though ostensibly a solo enter
prise, the delightful chamber program on Querstand has the air of collaboration. Following common baroque practice, the pieces are freely arranged for combinations of trumpet, violin, oboe, bassoon, double bass, and harpsichord that can be elegant, lively, and rustic at will. The performances are lucidly played with understanding and convivial spirit.”
“MacDonald has the soul of a chamber player--not a common quality in an orchestral principal trumpet. He also has presence, but he rarely dominates textures, and he freely shares the spotlight with the Gewandhaus principals who make up the Leipzig Baroque Soloists. Bassoonist Thomas Reinhardt steals the show sometimes, with virtuosity and tone that are at once warm, elegant, and breathtaking. The only caveat for trumpet enthusiasts is that MacDonald plays on only half of a short disc.
Reinhardt conducts the cantata and concerto release on Beoton. Camerata Leipzig is a chamber orchestra of free-lance Leipzig musicians that plays with taste and spirit. Argentinean Soprano Villanueva's round, darkish, and haunting soprano--I hate calling it Latin, but the image works--is a vocal take on MacDonald's trumpet sound and blends beautifully with it. Villanueva's voice doesn't seem right for Bach at first, but she pulls you in: the Bach is mesmerizing. MacDonald is scrupulous with his opening fanfares, supporting rather than jumping out in front of the strings, and his pointing in the last movement is exquisite. The Scarlatti is impressive in the same way. MacDonald turns the Handel into a work that is imperial and joyous, as required--and so it goes.
I recommend both discs heartily. To hear anything like MacDonald's approach to the trumpet, I go back to the 1970s Philips records by baroque scholar and trumpeter Don Smithers. Smithers had an uncanny sweet sound, but his tone was brighter, and he had more soloistic flair. You really want to hear both. Final note: as near as I can tell, everyone performs on conventional instruments.”
The reviewer for the American Record Guide is Roger Hecht. This review appeared in the July / August 2003 edition of the American Record Guide (Vol. 66, No. 4).
More...
John Roderick Macdonald – Kantaten und Konzerte CD BEOTON WO-0809 (CD)
Bach: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51; Handel: Suite in D-Dur; Pergolesi: Salve Regina; Telemann: Konzert D-Dur; Scarlatti: Su le sponde del Tebro.
John Roderick Macdonald has served as principal trumpet of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig Opera House, and Leipzig’s famous St. Thomas Church. Macdonald was born in Providence, Rhode Island, received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Rhode Island, and later graduated with a Masters of Music in Boston. Soprano soloist Ines Cecilia Villanueva, a native of Argentina, studied voice at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin and is now a member of the RIAS-Chamber Chorus. The two soloists are accompanied by the Camerate Leipzig, making this a truly international cast of musicians. Kantaten und Konzerte is an outstanding CD offers virtuoso performances from the soloists and the chamber orchestra. The musicians involved in this recording gave careful thought to every musical aspect of the performances of the works featured. The lyricism, intonation, and technically precise performances given by Macdonald, Villanueva, and the Camerata Leipzig chamber orchestra make this an inspired recording. Macdonald produces a rich, full trumpet sound combined with a wonderful sense of phrasing and control. His performance stands out from other recordings of these familiar works. Macdonald’s performances on Telemann and Handel are noteworthy because of his expressive and well-executed phrases. The orchestra matches his phrasing perfectly. Acknowledgement must be given to conductor Thomas Reinhardt for his attention to detail in the orchestra’s accompaniment to the soloists. This recording is exemplary in terms of recording in terms of recorded sound and musicianship, and is an example of chamber music performance at its best. Jon Burgess – International Trumpet Guild Journal – May/June 2001