The University of Chicago Presents at Mandel Hall opened its season in stirring, if unorthodox fashion Friday night. Swedish trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger shone in a varied program that was a hit with an audience of series veterans and young brass enthusiasts.

If trumpet recitals in major local venues are a rarity, Chicagoans are no strangers to the best this noble instrument has to offer. Music was never the same after Louis Armstrong stepped off the Union Station platform in 1922. 26 years later, Bud Herseth began an astonishing half-century tenure with the CSO, while Christopher Martin's thrilling performances in Mahler's Fifth Symphony last week are a sure sign that local fans of the instrument will have much to cheer about for years to come.

Hardenberger's claim to trumpet fame comes via a different route altogether. He may be comfortable in all literature, but he blossoms in newer fare, including many works he has commissioned from today's best composers.

It would be hard to imagine a more authoritative account of Luciano Berio's "Sequenza X" for C trumpet and piano resonance. Berio states that he tried to use the trumpet in a "direct and natural way," but this riveting work gains much of its power from a rejection of traditional roles. Many of the most entrancing effects derive from a desire to see the instrument in a percussive way.

Hardenberger periodically poked his instrument under the lid of the piano, emitting loud bursts as pianist Aleksandar Madzar held down a number of keys, creating shadow pitches that resonated and slowly decayed.

In Ligeti's "Mysteries of the Macabre," assembled from bits of his opera "Le Grand Macabre," both artists expanded their arsenal with vocal effects (spoken non-sequiturs, consonant-rich syllables) and small percussion instruments.

Rapid, disjunct gestures were exchanged between the two or played simultaneously, all with brittle, pin-point accuracy. Like the Berio, this is richly detailed music, with a plethora of musical ideas flung at the listener.

If the remainder of the program was marginally less persuasive, this was due in part to the repertoire. The obligatory fanfares appeared in Honegger's "Intrada," plucked from the reams of competition pieces that stuff the files of wind players the world over. Triple-tonguing and chromatic flourishes highlighted Enescu's flowery, gallic-infused "Legende," while Hindemith's sturdy Sonata was well paced and incisive.

Madzar gave the trumpeter a breather with two movements from Ravel's "Miroirs." The rapid repeated notes of "Alborada del grazioso" created a pleasing echo through the century to similar figures in the Berio.

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