THE ART OF BAROQUE TRUMPET
Vol 1:
Konzerte von Telemann, Molter, L. Mozart, Torelli, Purcell, Händel, Fasch
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553531
Vol 2.
Werke für Trompete & Orgel von Viviani, Fantini, Frescobaldi, Pezel, Sweelinck,
Rossi
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553593
Vol 3
Werke für Sopran & Trompete von Händel, Caldara, Fux, Predieri, Stradella,
Scarlatti
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553735
Vol 4
Händel:Atalanta-Ouvertüre +Telemann:Trompetenkonzert in D +Gross:Trompetenkonzert
in D +M. Haydn:Trompetenkonzert Nr. 2 in C +Molter:Trompetenkonzert Nr. 2 in D +Hertel:Konzert
in Es für Trompete & Oboe
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554375
Vol 5
Albinoni:Vien con nuova orribil guerra für Sopran, 2 Trompeten, 2 Oboen,
Streicher & Bc +Corelli:Sonate in D für Trompete, 2 Violinen, +Ziani:Trombe
d'Ausiana für Sopran, Trompete & Bc +Torelli:Trompetenkonzert in D;Sonate in D
für Trompete, Streicher & Bc +Galuppi:Alla tromba della Fama für Sopran,
Trompete, Streicher und Bc +Stradella:Sinfonia für Trompete, 2 Violinen & Bc +Franceschini:Sonate
in D für 2 Trompeten, Streicher & Bc +Vivaldi:Trompetenkonzert RV 537;Combatta
für Sopran, Trompete, Streicher & Bc;Agitata für Sopran, Streicher & Bc
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555099
Eine tolle Auswahl - und nur 5 von diversen Einspielungen Eklunds bei Naxos
Vol 3 mit den Werken für Sopran ist eine geile Idee, leider nur ist die (unbekannte) Sopranistin nicht nur etwas steif, sondern auch stimmlich zu bemüht, um die Platte zum vollen Genuss werden zu lassen.
Dirk Carius
Ausführlichere Informationen - Courtesy of Naxos
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The Art of
the Baroque Trumpet Vol. 1
Few instruments have changed as much with time as the trumpet. Before the introduction of valves in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, only the notes of the harmonic series were available, with widely separated notes in the lower register and notes closer together in the higher. The modern valve trumpet can play consecutive notes in the lower register and is shorter in length than the Baroque trumpet, the descriptive name now given to trumpets surviving from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and modern copies. The nature of the Baroque trumpet allowed the playing of melodies with consecutive notes only from c" upwards and made severer technical demands on a performer. In addition to other problems, the harmonic series contains higher notes that are slightly out of tune and need correction. This means that the strength of breath must be carefully controlled. The differences of technique between the earlier and modern trumpet mean that it is difficult for one player to have equal mastery of both. The introduction of finger-holes by Otto Steinkopf in 1960 has made correction of some notes easier, but the natural trumpet still remains a demanding instrument. The difficulty of the instrument is the probable reason that the works here included by Molter and Fasch are now recorded for the first time on natural trumpet. The earliest use of the trumpet in concert ensemble seems to have been at the beginning of the seventeenth century in Germany and then specifically in church music. About 1630 the Italian player Girolamo Fantini wrote sonatas for trumpet and for trumpet and basso continuo which he published in 1638 in his Modo per imparare a sonare di tromba. It was not, however, until about 1660 that the trumpet made an appearance in polyphonic instrumental music, probably first in Vienna and a little later in the Moravian town of Kremsier (Kromeric) and in Dresden. In Bologna Maurizio Cazzati published three sonatas for trumpet, strings and basso continuo in his Opus35, but regular composition of trumpet sonatas in Bologna began only in 1680. Most compositions for one or more trumpets were written at this period in Kremsier and Bologna, where the two most important composers were Vejvanovsky and Torelli respectively. Giuseppe Torelli and Tomaso Albinoni began to develop the solo concerto about 1690, a form later varied and perfected by Vivaldi, but after 1710 relatively few trumpet concerti were written by Italian composers, suggesting that the trumpet had by then lost its position as a Solo instrument, several trumpet concerti were written in Germany, however, until the beginning of the 1760s. Georg Philipp Telemann, more respected in his day than Bach, was employed in Harnburg for the greater part of his prolific career. On his death in 1767 he was succeeded as music director of the five city churches by his godson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. His Concerto for trumpet, hvo violins and basso continuo has the traditional four-movement form of the Baroque church sonata, a slow movement leading to a fast, followed by a further slow movement and a fast final movement. In the first movement the melody is entrusted to the trumpet, with a more equable share of melodic material in the second and fourth movements. A full manuscript score has been handed down to posterity by the collector J. S. Endler, who made a complete copy of it. O. Bill of the Hesse County and University Library suggests that the score would have been written about 1720, when Endler was active in Leipzig, or at least before he moved to Darmstadt in 1723. In his own first autobiography, written in 1718, Telemann says that he w rote several concerti during his stay at the court of Eisenach, from 1708 to 1712, but continued writing for Eisenach while he was employed at Frankfurt-am-Main and during the first ten years of his residence in Harnburg. It might, therefore, be conjectured that the present concerto was written for Eisenach, as the stylistically similar Concerto for trumpet, two oboes and basso continuo. The soloist was almost certainly Nikolaus Schreck, who was ernployed at Eisenach between 1710 and 1716 and after that until his death at Gotha, where he was described as concert trumpeter. It would seem that Telernann's concerto is the first such composition in Germany. Johann Melchior Molter was born at Tiefenort, near Eisenach, in 1696 and entered the service of the Margrave of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe. The latter sent him to study in Venice and Rome, appointing him Kapellmeister on his return in 1722. The disbanding of the orchestra in the difficult years of the War of the Polish Succession led to Molter's appointment as Kapellmeister at Eisenach. In 1753 he returned to Karlsruhe, where he re-established a small orchestra and taught. His compositions include concerti for several instruments and some fort y of these are preserved, among them five concerti for two trumpets written at Eisenach and three for single trumpet written about 1750. These latter are generally similar in form, with a homophonic style and simple, clear harmonies, in music that is in part imbued with energy and in part with strong feeling. The solo trumpet has a larger part in the first two movements, while third movements are shorter, with shorter solo passages. Technically the concerti are demanding and considerable sustaining power is needed in the slow movements. These works were written for Carl Pfeiffer of the Karlsruhe court orchestra. Johann Priedrich Pasch was born in 1688 at Büttelstadt, near Weimar, and was trained at the Thomasschule in Leipzig under Kuhnau, later studying with Graupner and Grünewald at Darmstadt. After various appointments, he became, in 1722, Kapellmeister in Zerbst, where he remained until his death in 1758. Pasch w rote music of all kinds, including a quantity of church music, much of which is now lost. In common with some of his contemporaries, he began to move away from Baroque style towards a pre-classical style of composition. In the concerto he starts with the form developed by Vivaldi but develops a style of his own with less distinction between the solo and tutti parts. An example of this may be heard in his Concerto for trumpet, hvo oboes, strings and basso continuo. Compared with other music of the period from 1740 to 1745, the concertoshows some of the traits of the newly developing style. It may have been composed for a trumpeter at the court of Zerbst or for a visiting performer. A native of Augsburg, where he was born in 1719, Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus, was a prolific composer. By 1757 he is said to have written a large quantity of church music, oratorios, theatre pieces, sinfonias, thirty large serenades and many concerti, the last especially for transverse flute, oboe, bassoon, French horn and trumpet. He was employed in the court orchestra in Salzburg from 1743, becoming court composer in 1757 and assistant Kapellmeister in 1763. His Trumpet Concerto in D major dates from 1762. It has on I y two movements and is scored for trumpet, two horns and strings. The introductory movement, an Andante, starts with a main theme, an ornamented scale, developing into sequences until the entry of the solo trumpet. There is no real second theme and the movement is like some kind of rodimentary sonata. In homophonic writing the highest part, generally the trumpet, dominatesal most completely, with a more melodious solo line in the first movement and shorter melodies for the soloist in the second. There are at the same time fanfare and signal themes, very much like those to be found in the contemporary sinfonia concertante. It is supposed that the concerto was written for the Salzburg court trompeter Johann Andreas Schachtner,a friend of the Mozart family, but it might equally have been written for some other trompeter in Salzburg, such as Caspar Köstler. Giuseppe Torelli, born in Verona in 1658, was employed in the orchestra of the basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, first, in 1686, as a viola-player, until the disbanding of the orchestra in 1696, and then, from 1701 to 1709 as a violinist. Between 1696 and 1701 he was active in Vienna and Ansbach. Torelli's Suonata con stromenti e tromba of 1690 is his first known work for solo trumpet. The composition has the same order of movements as the church sonata, the first beginning with a theme that recurs several times, in the manner of a ritornello. The theme is taken up by the trumpet, which has several distinctive passages. The second movement is a fugue, with a subject that occurs in the work of other composers, such as Alessandro Stradella and Arcangelo Corelli, and, in a slightly different form, Vincenzo Albrici. The third movement is for strings only, but in the fourth movement the trumpet returns. The concerto is Torelli's finest contribution to the repertoire and also his technically most exacting. It is arguable that Henry Purcell is the foremost English composer since William Byrd and, until the twentieth century, the last of the great English composers. He was a pupil of John Biowand succeeded him as organist at Westminster Abbey in 1679. Among his compositions are odes for chorus and orchestra, cantatas, songs, sacred music, chamber sonatas, music for harpsichord and theatre music. Most compositions for trumpet by Purcell occur as episodes in vocal or dramatic compositions, in interludes for use in the theatre. This is probably the case with his Trumpet Sonata in D major, thought to have been written in 1694, the year before his early death, as part of such a work. A pupil of Zachow in his native Halle, where he was born in 1685, George Frideric Handel, as he later became, showed early promise as a musician. From 1702 to 1706 he was employed at the theatre in Hamburg, followed by four years in Italy. In 1710 he became Kapellmeister to the court of Hanover, but in the same year made his first visit to London, where he took up permanent residence in 1712. He enjoyed considerable success at first with his Italian operas, later turning his attention to the new form of English oratorio. His trumpet solos are mostly associated with arias such as The trumpet shall sound from Messiah and Let the bright Seraphim from the oratorio Samson. There is, however a five-movement suite for trumpet and orchestra with the title Mr Handel's Celebrated Water Piece, published in 1733 by D. Wright of London. A second edition followed between 1740 and 1745, published by J. Johnson. The overture is from the second suite of the Water Music, written in 1717. The fifth movement is a re-arrangement of a march in B flat major from the opera Partenope, composed in 1730. The origin of the other movements is unknown, but it is quite possible that Handelleft a set of pieces with the publisher for further re-arrangement. It was not uncommon for him to re-use music from earlier works or in theme or substance from the works of others. |
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The Art of the Baroque
Trumpet Vol. 2 A group of composers working in the 17th century in Germany and Italy. Many were trumpet players writing for their own use, one of the earliest being an Italian, Girolamo Fantini, reported to be "the most excellent trumpeter of all Italy". He certainly performed with Frescobaldi in Rome, and it might have been that partnership for whom he composed the Sonatas for trumpet and organ published in 1638. That work was soon followed by two sonatas from Giovanni Viviani using the same combination of instruments. Though Italian he worked much of his life in Switzerland, and left a considerable output including operas and oratorios. The Sonatas probably date from around 1675 and were published three years later as an appendix to his Capricci. Johann Jacob Löwe von Eisenach held several important posts as organist in various German towns. We know that he also composed a modest amount of music, but it is reported he died in poverty. He wrote the Capricci in the mid 17th century and had them published, along with other works, in 1664. Johann Christoph Pezel was born in Silesia, but lived most of his life in Leipzig. He must have been talented, since he is reported to have been a skilled trumpeter, though he apparently earned a living as a violinist. In 1675 he had published a large volume of Two-Part Works, and among them were the Sonatas included here for trumpet, bassoon and bass continuo. They are extremely taxing, though it is reported that he performed them in public, which testifies to his virtuosity. Precious little is known of Prentzl, this sonata for trumpet, bassoon and bass continuo so closely resembles the Pezel sonatas that one wonders if they were by one and the same person. Girolamo Frescobaldi became one of the most famous organists of his time, holding the major position of organist at St. Peter's in Rome for the last 40 years of his life. He wrote a large number of compositions, the organ Toccata included on the disc coming from a collection published in 1637. Equally famous as an organist was Jan Sweelinck who was employed at the main church in Amsterdam from 1580 to 1621. He is thought, however, that he might have been taught in Venice. But he had Germanic qualities and was later instrumental in training many of the most eminent German organists. His Fantasia chromatica was one of the most important works for organ written at the beginning of the 17th century. Michelangelo Rossi led a more nomadic life, but enjoyed great esteem both as organist and composer, the Toccata included on the disc comes from a group of Toccatas printed in Rome in 1657. Niklas Eklund was born in Gothenburg in 1969. He started playing the trumpet at the age of four and followed in the family brass instrument tradition. He received his formal training at the University of Gothenburg School of Music, and following graduation worked for a short time as principal trumpet of the Basle Symphony Orchestra. His career is now exclusively as solo trumpet, and has become one of the world's leading exponents of the Baroque trumpet. Reviewing the first volume in Naxos's "The Art of the Baroque Trumpet", Gramophone magazine said of Eklund, "let me rejoice at playing of rare technical ability and musical panache". Knut Johannessen is equally home as a performer and teacher of the harpsichord as he is in the organ loft. Born in Norway he commenced his studies in Oslo before moving to the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He is a world authority on early music performance. Marc Ullrich is French and a former pupil of the legendary trumpeter, Maurice André; Mats Klingfors is Swedish and plays for several specialist early music ensembles; Tormod Dalen was born in Norway and studied with the famous baroque cellist, Jaap ter Linden. He too plays in major early music ensembles. Took place at the Haga Church in Gothenburg, Sweden, in July 1995. The booklet with this issue gives full details of an organ perfectly suited to music from this period. There is no comparative disc with this collection of music, and though a number of the works included are available on disc, there is no competition whatsoever for a budget price disc of this genre |
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The Art of
the Baroque Trumpet, Vol. 3 Music for Soprano and Trumpet Handel • Caldara • Fux • Predieri • Stradella • Scarlatti During the late Baroque period it became fairly common for a vocal part to be accompanied by an instrument, in order to heighten the expressiveness of the text. These additional instrumental parts were described as obbligato, or necessary. During the 1670s this had become common practice in operas, especially in Venice, but it gradually became less frequent and by about 1710 had almost ceased to exist in Italy. This was certainly owing to the fact that now the singer was to be the centre of attention, without competition from any instrumentalists. The singer was to have full scope for his virtuosity and power of expression and the orchestra was to serve merely as a background. The trumpet, as an obbligato instrument, where such parts were employed, was mainly used to symbolize war, combat, revenge or Fama, the goddess of rumour. This association of ideas could be extended to fights for love and, strangely enough, also to feelings of grief and pain, as, for example, those experienced over unrequited love. Born in Halle in 1685, George Frideric Handel showed early promise, studying there with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. In 1702 he embarked on a musical career, with employment at the Hamburg opera-house, moving in 1706, to Italy, where the leading composers of the day made a great impression on him. In 1710 he was engaged as Kapellmeister at the court of Hanover, but in the same year was given permission to visit London, where, after a second visit in 1712, he took up permanent residence. Here his first engagement had been for the provision of Italian opera and at first his work for the opera-house was very successful, but when public interest began to decline in the 1730s, he turned also to the composition of English oratorio. His Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, described as a Serenata, was written for the Queen's birthday on 16th February 1714 and was his first selling of an English text. This commission shows even at this stage the extent of Handel's renown in England. The aria Eternal source of light divine, which introduces the cantata, was originally written for a countertenor but it was not uncommon to adapt an aria to suit a different singer, with transpositions and other changes. In some of his earlier operas Handel had used obbligato trumpet parts, and the same holds true for his oratorios in the 1740s. The oratorio Samson was, apart from the recitatives, composed in October 1741, to be completed only after the composition of Messiah. A year later Handel made changes in his score, to accommodate a larger group of singers, adding the aria Let the bright Seraphim, which, placed immediately before the final chorus, became the high point of the oratorio. The trumpet part was written for Valentine Snow, the foremost English trumpeter of his time, who had been a member of Handel's orchestra since the 1730s. The well-known music historian Charles Burney praised Snow for his silver sounds. Rinaldo was Handel's s first opera for an English audience. Almira, betrothed to Radamisto, sings the aria Lascia ch'io pianga (‘Let me weep’), when suffering the unwelcome attentions of the Saracen king, Argante. It has always been considered one of Handel's finest arias. Although the use of obbligato instruments disappeared in Italy about 1710, Italian composers active in Vienna continued the older practice. Special gala performances of operas were given for the birthdays and name-days of the Emperor Charles VI and the Empress Elisabeth and during the Emperor's reign, which lasted from 1711 to 1740, there was in Vienna a large and brilliant Court Orchestra, with many eminent musicians, especially in the trumpet section. The Italian composer Antonio Caldara was born in Venice in 1670 and was probably a pupil there of Giovanni Legrenzi. He began his career in 1689, composing operas, oratorios, sacred music and some purely instrumental music. Between the years 1700 and 1707 he was Kapellmeister in Mantua, but very little remains of his compositions from that period. From 1708 to 1716 he was in the service of Prince Ruspoli, who was, together with Cardinal Ottoboni, the foremost patron of music in Rome. In 1716 Charles VI engaged him as assistant Kapellmeister in Vienna, where his industry and versatility enabled him to take over the duties of Johann Joseph Fux, the ageing Kapellmeister. As the Emperor's favourite composer he wrote 63 operas, 27 oratorios, a great amount of sacred music and several other compositions. The opera Ifigenia in Aulide (Iphigenia in Aulis) was composed in 1718 for the name-day of the Emperor. From this work La vittoria segue (Victory follows) can best be described as a basso continuo aria, that is an aria with no orchestral accompaniment, but here with an obbligato trumpet. In 1715 Johann Joseph Fux was able to exchange his title of assistant Kapellmeister to that of Kapellmeister of the court musical establishment in Vienna. He is nowadays best known as a scholar, especially for his book Gradus ad Parnassum, but he also composed a wide variety of music. The opera Enea negli Elisi (‘Aeneas in Elysia’) was written for the birthday of the Empress on 28th August 1731. The concertante trumpet lends a heroic character to Gloria's aria Chi nel camin d'onore (‘Who on the path of honour’). The very demanding trumpet part goes as high as e''' on a trumpet in C, just as in the preceding aria by Caldara. It was probably written for Johann Heinisch, who was famous for his virtuosity and was praised by Fux. The aria is a da capo aria, in tripartite A-B-A form, and is accompanied by basso continuo only, except in the central section, where the trumpet is silent and the singer is accompanied by a four-part orchestra. Luca Antonio Predieri, who arrived in Vienna in 1737, the year of Caldara's death soon became assistant Kapellmeister and in 1746 Kapellmeister. He retired five years later, still keeping his salary, and returned to his native Bologna, where he died in 1767. In Vienna he composed operas as well as sacred music. The opera Zenobia was written for the birthday of the Empress on 28th August 1740. Zenobia is the wife of Radamisto. In his absence she refuses the protection of Prince Tiridate, since he has once tried to violate her. In the aria, therefore, she sings Pace una volta, e calma lascia ch'io trovi, (‘Let me find peace and calm’) and the trumpet underlines her desire. The trumpet part is very demanding with long ascending passages and quavers in a high position, together with the very infrequent note of e''' flat. Both singer and trumpet-player are confronted with a very challenging task, with long coloratura passages that reach as high as c'''. In Italy the trumpet could also be given a concertante function in an introductory operatic sinfonia. A good example of this is the sinfonia for the first act of the serenata Il Barcheggio by Alessandro Stradella, performed at a wedding in Genoa in 1681. Stradella, born in Rome in 1644, was active in several different cities, including Venice, Rome and finally Genoa. At his death he was only 37 years old, but he had by then acquired a distinguished reputation as a composer. The trumpet occurs in several arias in Il Barcheggio, the second act of which also opens with a trumpet sinfonia. Together with the opera, the cantata shared a position as the most important vocal genre during the second part of the seventeenth century. A cantata could be considered as a single scene from an opera, although the music and the text are on a more intimate scale. The form was meant for smaller places and did not demand stage decor or costumes. Almost all opera composers wrote cantatas, including Stradella, but outstanding among them is Alessandro Scarlatti with more than six hundred cantatas, in some of which an obbligato trumpet part is included. Scarlatti was not only the master of the cantata but also the most eminent Italian composer towards the end of the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In his operas there is evidence of a new style of composing, concentrating on the melodic line of the singer. Scarlatti was active principally in Naples, where he settled in 1683, at the age of 23, but he also spent some time in Rome. The cantata Su le sponde del Tebro tells the story of the false and heartless Cloris and the grief and pain of her lover Aminta whom she has betrayed. The cantata is one of Scarlatti's finest and in expressiveness and musical quality equivalent to a scene from an opera. The trumpet accompanies the aria Contentatevi, o fidi pensieri, (‘Content you, faithful thoughts’) where it serves to reflect the conflict in Aminta's heart. In the following recitatives and arias that lead to the climax of the cantata, pain and grief are depicted by severe polyphonic writing, strange harmonies and strident dissonances. In the final aria Tralascia pur di piangere (‘Leave off weeping’) the trumpet returns, alternating with the singer, but has very little to do with the text. Stylistically the cantata belongs among Scarlatti's earlier works. As the text mentions the Tiber there is reason to believe that it was composed in Rome, and in that case in the early 1690s. The four arias for soprano, trumpet and basso continuo are part of a collection, 7 Arie con Tromba Solo (‘Seven Arias with Trumpet Solo’), in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The texts are about love and war and it is not known for what occasion they were written, but, with mention of the Tiber, it is probable that they were to be performed in Rome, and in that case during the period Scarlatti spent there between 1703 and 1708. A trumpet without valves is generally called a natural trumpet as it is confined only to the tones of harmonic series or partial tones. Some of the tones are impure and cause problems with intonation, especially if the trumpet is played together with an instrument of fixed pitch. An experienced trumpeter can reduce these problems with his embouchure. This is also easier on an old trumpet because of irregularities of the tubing. Modern replicas with an even tubing make this more difficult, the pitch of every harmonic is more "stable". As the harmonics in the upper range lie very close together to attain security of attack is very difficult. In order to help the modern trumpeter to shift between the valve trumpet and the natural one, a finger-hole system was devised by Otto Steinkopf about 1960. By opening one hole all even numbered harmonics are excluded, and by opening another so are the odd numbered ones. A third hole which transposes the pitch of the instrument a fourth gives a purer r and a-. Trumpets with such holes are best called Baroque Trumpets to differentiate them from pure natural trumpets. Reine Dahlqvist |
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