Romantic Trumpet Grieg:
Holberg Suite, Op. 40 Linn CKD370 The 1935 sonata by Karl Pilss (1902-79) - he was "consumed for preservation of the Austro-German musical tradition during the Anschluss" - is the only original work here and it is one worth preserving. But for the rest - "these new transcriptions expand the boundaries of the trumpet as a solo instrument and deserve to take their place in the standard repertoire for the instrument", claims Linn. I'd say the strings sonatas are strictly for trumpeters, and I have not brought myself to listen to them. The Holberg Prelude & Rigaudon are fun, and brilliantly executed, but I'm glad to have heard the original suite in concert again only this month. Freeman-Attwood's mission has been "to improve the lot of the trumpet/piano duo" and as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music it is a worthy objective, persuasively explored in his liner note essay, an unusually brilliant piece of special pleading. Both musicians are active at RAM, where I have attended academic sessions involving them. I spoke with J F-A after a trumpet masterclass in a small studio there which was painful for listeners and potentially dangerous for the participants... Peter Grahame Woolf
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