Before 1815, with the invention of the valve trumpet, a very different instrument, now called a “baroque trumpet,” dominated the scene. The baroque trumpet is surely brassy and brilliant, and it inspired countless ceremonial flourishes and much important music of its day. Yet it also has its own qualities, not replicated on the modern instrument.

The battles of “early music” style, which raged in the classical music world in the 1970s, have largely been won. And the more unique, the odder, maybe, that “original instruments” sound to modern ears, the way they force listeners to pause and hear music freshly – well, surely the better. The Seattle Trumpet Consort, seven virtuosi blending magnificently on baroque trumpets, have been exploring a little known repertoire niche since the group’s formation in 2001. Much of this music can be classified as “fanfares,” and the casual listener will think, “Aha, period movies and television!” But there is a reason for that cliché – the natural excitement and nobility of fanfares. This new recording explores the tradition in fifteen short compositions dating from the late baroque through Benjamin Britten’s Fanfare For St. Edmondsbury, from 1959. The sound is spectacular, the ensemble brilliantly complex, the trumpets “something else” in more ways than one. Note to the explorer: Try this.

- Andrew Freund

TRACK LISTING:
1. L. Mozart Fanfare (0:56)
2. C.P.E. Bach March for the Ark (2:44)
3-8. W.A. Mozart Divertimento for Two Flutes, Five Trumpets and Timpani K.188 (9:39)
9-11. L.J. Ott Three Fanfares for Two Brass Choirs and Timpani (4:09)
12-16. M. Gebauer Premiere Suite of Fanfares (4:44)
17-19. A. Diabelli Heroic Music for Six Trumpets
and Timpani (5:46)
20-27. W.A. Mozart Divertimento for Two Flutes, Five Trumpets and Timpani K.187 (10:27)
28. R.Wagner Fanfare No. 1 (0:54)
29-31. S.R. Neukumm Three Fanfares (2:44)
32. R. Wagner Fanfare No. 2 (0:33)
33. F. Daverné Quartet No. 6 for Four Natural Trumpets (3:44)
34. A. Dvo?ák Fanfare (2:03)
35. R. Wagner Fanfare No. 3 (0:53)
36-37. M. Epstein Two Canons for Seven Trumpets (3:09)
38. B. Britten Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury (3:11)

MUSICIANS:
The Seattle Trumpet Consort:
Brian Chin
David Cole
Matt Dalton
Ansgar Duemchen
Bob Gale
Judson Scott
Gordon Ullmann
Dan Oie, Timpani

with friends:
Kim Pineda, Baroque Flute
Jennifer Rhyne, Baroque Flute

PRODUCTION:
Produced by Brian Chin
Production Assistance by Judson Scott and members of the STC

Recording Engineer: Ronald Haight

Engineered and Mastered by Ronald Haight Music in First Free Methodist Chuch, Seattle, WA
This recording was made possible by a generous grant from the people at 4Culture, King County's cultural services agency (Seattle, WA)

REVIEWS:

James Manheim
All Music Guide

The program presented on this disc goes beyond unusual into the territory of the arcane. The natural, or valveless trumpet, was the normal instrument until it was supplanted by the keyed trumpet (in the late eighteenth century) and then the valve trumpet (in the early nineteenth) as it is known today. But the natural trumpet hung on in certain pedagogical quarters, and no less a figure than Brahms wrote the orchestral parts of his symphonies for them. That said, music for an all-trumpet consort is restricted mostly to fanfare-like works. A collection of post-Baroque pieces for a consort of natural trumpets is something that digs pretty far down in the bucket. The music on the disc is a mixed bag, but most of it consists of short fanfares and marches, presumably written for occasional use and reflecting little of the personalities of their individual composers. The Mozart Divertimento for two flutes, two trumpets, and timpani, K. 188, is inauthentic despite its having convinced Köchel; its likely composer was Joseph Starzer, whose Divertimento for the still-stranger combination of two flutes, five trumpets, and timpani is one of the disc's high points. The Wagner and Dvorák pieces included are pretty commonplace, but the latter-day works by Paris Conservatorty professor François Dauvernè and contemporary composer Marti Epstein (a series of short canons for trumpets in different keys) are intriguingly offbeat. The natural trumpet is a difficult instrument, and the players show impressive stamina in producing a consistent sound...