VA - Trumpet Concertos, Vol. 1 (2017)

This is a sparkling set of concertos for the trumpet along with other pieces that highlight the instrument, providing vivid readings of some of the most renowned masterworks in the trumpet repertoire plus recordings of lesser-known yet equally idiomatic compositions.

Joining the well loved Classical trumpet concertos of Haydn and Hummel are the many Baroque works featuring trumpet by Telemann and an Italian champion of the instrument, Giuseppe Torelli, along with famous pieces by Vivaldi and Handel. We find another prolific trumpet composer in the German baroque violinist Johann Melchior Molter, and fine concertos from Quantz, famed more for his flute music, and Johannes Matthias Sperger, a renowned player of and composer for the double bass.

The music of Quantz’s teacher, Jan Dismas Zelenka, is enjoying a revival, as is that of Johann Friedrich Fasch, admired by both Bach and Telemann, who wrote an extraordinary concerto for three wind choirs with nine trumpets between them. Later in the 18th century, some composers stretched the limits of virtuosity in the natural trumpet, before the advent of valves around 1815. These include Georg Reutter II and the enigmatic Franz Querfurth, who both demanded sustained playing in the highest register. Tuscan composer Francesco Manfredini, like Querfurth, is known today for little else besides his trumpet concerto, while the majority of his works are now lost to history.

Authors who wrote prominently for the trumpet in pieces other than concertos include Johann Schmelzer and Johann Joseph Fux, along with Fux’s student František Tůma, while Beethoven’s composition teacher Johann Georg Albrechtsberger wrote concertos for the jaw harp, whose harmonics are well suited to adaptation for the natural trumpet.

Though somewhat overshadowed by their more illustrious family members, Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart both wrote fine trumpet concertos, while two generations of Bibers, Carl Heinrich and his more prominent father Heinrich Ignaz Franz, composed sonatas and dances for multiple trumpets.

Rounding out this set are outstanding modern additions to the trumpet repertoire, including trumpet concertos by the Armenian Alexander Arutiunian and French composer André Jolivet, as well as Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.1, which casts the solo trumpet in a prominent role.