Beethoven’s 5th
Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings, David Blackadder, trumpet
Academy of Ancient Music
Barbican Hall. 27 June 2025

Maria Theresia Ahlefeldt: Telemachus on Calypso’s Isle
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

In what was billed as “struggles, seduction and sparkling wit”, Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) gave another of their enterprising concerts, this time in the Barbican Hall. They opened with music from Maria Theresia Ahlefeldt, a composer little known today whose nationality seems to confuse many people. She was born in 1755 in Regensburg (then the permanent seat of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire) as Princess Maria Theresia of Thurn and Taxis, the princely house that, since 1812, has had its seat in Regensburg’s Schloss Thurn und Taxis. After an ‘interesting’ early life of royal culture, privilege and intrigue, she eventually married a Danish Count against the wishes of her family (a criminal offence at the time for a royal), leading to her flight to Ansbach, part of the Brandenburg domains. In 1792, her husband later became director of the Royal Danish Theatre, where the ballet-opera Telemachus on Calypso’s Isle was first performed later the same year.

A sequence of nine instrumental pieces from Telemachus on Calypso’s Isle alternated with readings of the plot from Laurence Cummings. The music, in late Classical style with an imaginative use of instrumental colour, was an impressive reflection of the various incidents in the story of Telemachus on the magic island. It was followed by Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, given a very impressive performance by the AAM’s principal trumpeter, David Blackadder, who rose to the challenge of the period instrument and Haydn’s virtuosic writing. A fascinating introduction to the trumpet of the period was given by the maker of David Blackadder’s instrument, Robert Vanryne, who happened to be playing in the orchestra. The use of holes drilled into the tube of the trumpet body had managed to fill in the ‘missing’ notes of the natural trumpet, very different to the later valved trumpet and the earlier Baroque ‘clarino‘ trumpet, where melodies could only be played at a very high pitch.

What most people probably came for was the second half performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, a venture away from the usual repertoire for the AAM, although far from new for other period instrument orchestras. A pre-concert discussion between Laurence Cummings, AAM leader Bojan Čičić, and flautist Rachel Brown, encouraged by Nicholas Kenyon, explored some of the issues raised by the instruments and the related performance practices of the time. Regular AAM audience members are likely to have heard Beethoven played on period instruments many times, albeit from other orchestras. But, for those for whom the experience was new, they were in for a treat. The biggest difference is in the tone and instrumental colour of the instruments, particularly the woodwind who sound very different to modern instruments. One notable example on this occasion was the prominent sound of the two horns, played by Gavin Edwards and David Bentley. Also visually and audibly impressive was the contrabassoon, played by Chris Rawley. It sounds an octave lower than a ‘normal’ bassoon, but in its 18th-century configuration, it looks enormous, towering over the seated player. Later models fold the plumbing up to make it a less prominent size.

For me, one of he magical aspects of Beethoven’s 5th is its frequent, and often mysterious, transitional passages, the most prominent being the link between the third and fourth movements. These require excellent control by a conductor, something that Laurence Cummings certainly achieved in his assured reading of the work. The opening was, quite literally, punchy, as Cummings swung round from acknowledging his arrival applause and thumped the air to start what he kept stressing during the pre-concert talk was the open “four-bar phrase”, which sounded well before the applause died down. Dramatic as it was, I am not sure whether such overlapping of applause with the start of a piece is the best way to start.