Sound of Trumpets

This is a delightful disk of music not heard all that often--at least not by the general listening public--and not often heard performed at such a high level. Though the sound of trumpets may not be everybody's special delight, it is hard to see how any classical music-lover would fail to enjoy the sparkling, upbeat tone of this music and the brilliance of its performance.Gerard Schwarz, a virtuosic, imaginative, and artistically gifted trumpet player (who has subsequently given up his career of performance in order to take on the challenges of conducting), assembled this talented and enthusiastic group of trumpeters along with other instrumentalists to bring to life five excellent examples of Baroque music featuring the instrument in varying numbers and musical contexts, from the sweet tuneful Biber sonata with 8 trumpets, bassoon and harpsichord continuo, and occasional percussion to the masterful Telemann concerto with solo trumpet, string ensemble, and continuo.The variety of compositional style, instrumental grouping, and musical context and motifs keep any hint of boredom at bay as we listen and succumb to the charms of this voice now regal, now songful, now elegiac.The composers date from about the mid-17th century to the late 18th, with Biber (1644-1704) being the oldest and Altenburg (1734-1801) coming nearly a century later. (Thus we can trace the story of trumpet music from early days to full development.) They are all pretty well known to classical music listeners--with the possible exception of Altenburg--and their compositional talents are well established. Their geographic locales are Germanic, from Hamburg in the north to Salzburg, Austria, in the south, or Italian, from Venice to Bologna, in the north.The musical liner notes by Mary Lou Humphrey are good, offering interesting background on each piece and its composer. In addition there is a good bio of Mr. Schwarz, and a technical description of the recording process written by chief engineer Stan Ricker. The recording was made in the Masonic Temple Auditorium in New York City on March 15-16, 1979 using the highest quality equipment and digital recording techniques then available (Soundstream, 50kHz sampling rate, later reduced to 44.1kHz for the CD by the Studer SFC-16 sampling rate converter).By today's standards the disk is a bit skimpy on musical quantity, at about 34 minutes total time. But recall that it was made at a time when most all recorded classical music was heard from long-playing vinyl records, whose total length was not much more than that.The only quibble I have with this recording (DELOS D/CD 3002) is in the program listing printed on the back and on the first inner page of the booklet. There we find some confusing errors, from track numbering to the description of the music. Specifically, the Altenburg concerto listed as occupying tracks 1-3 is actually totally contained on track 1. That makes the track numbering of all subsequent pieces incorrect by two, and the total number of tracks on the disk 13 instead of 15. Also, the key of the Torelli Sonata a cinque, which actually begins on track 6--not 8--is D Major, not G Major as printed. (Too bad if you have absolute pitch!)To help clarify matters, I offer the correct list of contents and tracks:Altenburg: Concerto in D Major01 - Allegro; Andante; VivaceVivaldi: Concerto in C Major02 - Allegro03 - Largo04 - Allegro05 - Biber: Sonata "Scti Polycarpi" in C MajorTorelli: Sonata a cinque No. 1 in D Major06 - Andante07 - Allegro08 - Grave09 - AllegroTelemann: Concerto in D Major10 - Adagio11 - Allegro12 - Grave13 - AllegroAs to whether the pieces are played on genuine period instruments, we are not specifically told. In particular we aren't told whether these are valved instruments or natural trumpets. We are given the pitches and registers, which include C and D trumpets and G and A piccolo trumpets. The C and D trumpets are just 1 or 2 notes higher in pitch than today's standard Bb orchestral trumpet, while the piccolo trumpets are 5 or 6 notes higher. In addition to the pitch differences there are differences in bore and other construction details, which afford them distinctive sounds and performance characteristics. It is my belief that Mr. Schwarz is using a valved instrument in his solos, for it seems unlikely that his fast and intricate ornaments and smoothly slurred runs could be produced on a valveless trumpet.All in all, this is a choice bit of music well worth having in your collection. It will stand up to many, many playings and will provide countless moments of musical pleasure and edification. I recommend it highly.

These days, Gerard Schwarz is a noted conductor and has given his trumpet away. Which, for those of us who love trumpet music, is a crying shame, as he was a top player. I personally regard his Delos recording of The Big Two, Haydn and Hummel, to include the best Hummel ever recorded, even better than The Mighty André's.This is another one of those old Delos recordings from the days of higher quality recorded vinyl, and it's a good one. Schwarz and ensemble take on some of the lesser known baroque trumpet works of the Baroque repertoire, and make a great job of it. Indeed the only really well-known piece is the Vivaldi double trumpet concerto. A truly joyous, sonorous sound. Purists may moan that these weren't recorded on "authentic" trumpets (which all use non-authentic thumb and finger holes to get the notes right anyway), but I'm no purist and I find the musicianship and the pieces themselves to be thoroughly enjoyable. Thoroughly recommended.

This CD only plays for a couple of minutes and then quits altogether.

This is a must-have for trumpet fans as students of the trumpet. It's immaculate playing and interpretations of this fun repertoire.

Great CD

Sound of Trumpets  has been on my short list of "10's" since I first ran across it when I was considerably younger. The joy and verve that the composers, artists, and recordists have created here is worth bringing into your life. Don't miss it!

I am an avid amateur trumpet player and own around 100 trumpet albums. There are not many recordings of some of these works available except on this CD and the performances are, for me, the definitive performances of these magnificent baroque master pieces. This CD is the best trumpet ensemble album I've ever heard and I've been listening to these things for 30 years. Even though the album is a reissue of an earlier vinyl LP the sparkling sounds of the strings and trumpets is undiminished. The performances are all first rate. Not only do the performers play all the pieces in their original keys (the Altenburg in D!)but the baroque ornamentation on the Vivaldi is like nothing I've heard before! It is wonderful. Of interest to the trumpet player will be the fact that the type of trumpet used to play each piece is listed. For instance they do the Vivaldi on Schilke G piccolo trumpets. Get it before it goes out of print.Emmett Anglin(...)

I play the trumpet, and own many trumpet CD's, and this one by far is the most astonishing, and amazing. I highly, highly recommend it.