Trumpets in Concert

Here is another fine performance of the Fireworks Music in its original scoring for nine horns, nine trumpets, 21 oboes, 21 bassoons, three snare drums and three timpani. It makes a grand noise, but just as interesting is the music that conductor Trevor Pinnock has assembled from other Handel works, something the composer himself did, to provide a rich and enjoyable selection of orchestral music that we would ordinarily never hear in this form. Pinnock has had a tendency in the past to sound somewhat stiff in Handel's music, but here he lets his hair down and everyone concerned seems to be having a very good time.

‘Well, what a surprise – a divine surprise! I have delighted in immersing myself in the world of Handel for more than forty years now. But I must admit that I experienced yet another lesson in strength and joy when I toured and recorded the Dettingen Te Deumand the Coronation Anthems’, says Hervé Niquet. As a lover of large orchestral formations, he has assembled a number of instrumentalists and singers close to the (gigantic) forces used at the premiere, with a large band of oboes, bassoons and trumpets, and assigned the solo arias to the entire ‘chapel’. Niquet speaks of ‘the glittering power of this ceremonial music concocted by a Handel conscious of placing the best of his genius at the service of the crown and of history’, and he in turn invests all his enthusiasm and expressiveness in these works combining ‘grace and strength’. Fans of Champions League football will recognise in Zadok the Priestthe theme of that competition’s anthem!

Although later generations would judge otherwise, Georg Philipp Telemann was considered the most important German composer of the first half of the 18th century in the eyes of his contemporaries. After his appointment as musical director of the 5 most important churches in Hamburg, Telemann managed to establish his fame as a composer both nationally and internationally. An example of his influence is, for example, Telemann's so-called Musique de table from 1733, consisting of various orchestral and chamber music works. Handel was one of the subscribers for this series, and so it came about that a theme from the Suite in D by Telemann eventually ended up in the organ concert op. 7, No. 4 of Handel. This suite is played together with another suite and a concerto in a performance by The English Concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields", a small, conductorless string group. The ASMF gave its first concert on 13 November 1959, in the church after which it was named. In 1988, the orchestra dropped the hyphens from its full name.

This set is pure joy. These are period performances, but there's nothing hair-shirt about them. Pinnock caresses the slow movements with great affection, and throughout there's a sense of fun and enjoyment. What's exciting is the sweetness of the period-instrument sound and the suppleness and flexibility The English Concert brings to the music. They play, much of the time, as if it were chamber music, particularly in second subjects – the lyrical passages, that is, where they shape the phrases with a warmth and refinement you hardly expect in orchestral music.

The music on this disc is about sonority, about the brilliance of trumpets and strings in a live, reverberant acoustic such as that of Salzburg cathedral, for which at least some of these works were conceived. And Andrew Manze and his English Concert unequivocally deliver (albeit in the less-opulent confines of London’s Temple Church), from the opening fanfare through the vibrant, tuneful, richly scored sonatas that periodically spice this thoughtfully organized program. The featured work is a Mass, the Missa Christi Resurgentis, likely written for Easter in 1764. It’s a lavish celebration scored for two four-part choirs, an added bass singer, plus two instrumental ensembles, designed to be performed antiphonally in a grand display.

Vivaldi's music isn't just a concert hall favourite; it's also been featured in many films.