Favorites: Matilda Lloyd

My favorite symphony will always be Mahler’s Fifth, a desert island disc for me. It’s about emotions and what it can make you feel. I can find one of its five movements that suits my mood, whatever that might be. When I’m feeling sad and I need to have a cry, the fourth movement, Adagietto, is the one to put on.

Likewise, if you’re feeling triumphant or if you’re feeling angry, it’s all there – a whole world of different emotions inside one symphony, so it’s always going to be one of my absolute favorite pieces of all time.

As a trumpet player, it will always be incredibly special to me because I had the opportunity to play the first trumpet part when I was in the National Youth Orchestra in the UK, and then at Cambridge University as well. I also replayed it in the European Union Youth Orchestra. Each time, you go through a long rehearsal process, so you really get to know it – I could sing most of the different instruments’ lines!

It just starts with a lone trumpet solo. It’s so exposed for such a long time that most conductors don’t even conduct, it’s just a sort of look in the eyes or an eyebrow nod and then, off you go trumpeter, do your thing…

It’s the most difficult piece on the planet for a trumpet player to start, but it also gives you a rush like no other. Throughout, you have these amazing moments to soar over the top of the orchestra. It’s so arresting when you play above this huge wall of sound coming from below.

“…if you’re feeling triumphant or if you’re feeling angry, it’s all there – a whole world of different emotions inside one symphony.“

One of the things I love so much about the trumpet is its versatility and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 allows you to demonstrate that; you can play loudly, like a fanfare, and then later on you have these intimate moments when you duet with the violas, for example.

But it is a difficult part and if you split a note you have to be like a tennis player; if you miss a point it doesn’t matter, you have to try and live in the present and not worry about what’s happened. But I think when it comes to live music, people would much rather have an interesting, exciting performance that makes them feel something, even if it has a couple of split notes in it, rather than a safe, boring, technically perfect performance that lacks any kind of musicality.

Recording wise, I wouldn’t single any one performance out although the sound of the London Symphony Orchestra with its then principal trumpet, Maurice Murphy, is unparalleled.

Mahler: Symphony No. 5, London Symphony Orchestra and James DePreist (conductor), Naxos