Jazz Inflections: Simon Höfele and Frank Dupree – BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Swinging. Singing. Brilliance.

Simon Höfele – trumpeter extraordinaire – plays Gershwin, Olga Neuwirth and Elvis Costello: music in which jazz and classical traditions become one.

When George Gershwin premiered his Rhapsody in Blue in New York in 1924, it was a turning point in the relationship between classical music and the bold new creative force known as jazz. Gershwin’s era-defining jazz concerto and his swinging salute to 1920s Paris frame more recent classical conversations with the world of jazz – and with the shining, soulful sound of the trumpet.

Simon Höfele first took up the trumpet when he was seven, so it’s no wonder that when he plays today, it sounds so natural and so charismatic. ‘What Simon Höfele does with his trumpet is simply sensational!’ wrote one critic, and he’s fast making a name as a fearless musical explorer.

‘There is a musician here with the most brilliant, most enchanting and perhaps the most profound talent: George Gershwin.’ – Maurice Ravel