Christian Lindberg/ Roland Pontinen, Barbican Hall, London

Blasts from the past

There can be few less likely encore pieces for solo trombone than Monti's "Csardas" – a show-stopper for violin! But when did you last hear a full-length trombone recital, let alone one with an encore? Virtuoso trombonists are a rare breed indeed. Christian Lindberg has been astonishing audiences for some while, but his concert last week in the Barbican's Great Performers series was a smash-and-grab raid on music from the past with a couple of Lindberg compositions thrown in. The title – Love, Death and Bandidos: Stolen Works from a World of Passion – said it all. Here was a trombonist trying to get out of a "classical" straitjacket. How well did he succeed? Pretty well, if judgement by the respectably filled Barbican Hall was evidence. The jubilant whistling and cat-calling suggested that every young trombonist in the country – and I do mean young – had thronged to London's Silk Street.

The solo trombone virtuoso does pose problems. Where can he play? It can't be too small or audiences' ears would be blown off, but a 2,000-seat concert hall is daunting to fill and draughty if empty. And what does he play? Smash-and-grab may indeed be the only way if a wide repertoire is required.

Lindberg is an exuberant performer, both in manner and dress. He bounded on stage in tight leather trousers, so tight that we knew he wouldn't sit down. Behind him came his redoubtable partner, Roland Pöntinen, in sober suit. They have both appeared on a CD cover in gangster outfits. In a recital, all from memory, Lindberg began with a flourish: his "Los Bandinos" was short, sharp and very loud, easily eclipsing Pöntinen's piano, a concert Steinway open on full stick. Then came Schumann, whose Fantasiestücke has been easy game for many different instruments... but the trombone? If technically awesome, the lyrical passages did sound rather too fruity while the passage work was inevitably a bit smudged. But Sandström's "Cadenza de la Mancha" and Lindberg's own "Kokakoka" had Lindberg jumping, shouting, singing lustily, playing chords (he hums while blowing) and banging his slide on the floor in pieces of pure Dada. Not to be outdone – and to give Lindberg a breather – Pöntinen also laid into arrangements: Schubert by Liszt ("Hark, hark! The Lark") and Mendelssohn by Rachmaninov (the Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream). Coolly executed, terrifyingly difficult. It was in Rachmaninov's own G minor Prelude, however, that Pöntinen really showed his metal. Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet arranged by Lindberg was at its most touching in "Juliet's Farewell", whereas the most successful arrangement of the evening was a remarkable Stravinsky's Firebird.