Baroque Concertos

Most 18th-century trumpet music was written for the notoriously difficult “natural” trumpet on which different notes are produced entirely, and arduously, through the player’s lips. It’s often stratospherically high in pitch, beyond the comfortable range of the modern valved instrument, so today’s trumpeters have to find a way of accessing this repertoire without resorting to learning an entirely new technique. Enter the piccolo trumpet, a smaller and higher valved instrument first championed and popularised by Maurice André. The great 20th-century French trumpeter proved that players could tackle music composed for the pre-valve age, as well as concertos originally composed for flute, oboe or violin. “André was a remarkable and expressive performer, with an extraordinarily beautiful sound,” Balsom tells Apple Music Classical. “The tone that he was able to create on the piccolo trumpet is something that is almost operatic.” Balsom has had a long and rich relationship with Baroque music (her “first love”, as she puts it), playing it to scintillating effect on both natural and modern B-flat trumpets. Here, however, she follows in André’s footsteps, innovatively combining piccolo trumpet and Baroque ensemble to unlock a whole new world of concertos by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello, Telemann and Handel. “Choosing what to include on this album was an organic and painstaking but ultimately very rewarding experience that took place over a number of years,” Balsom tells Apple Music Classical of her concerto line-up. “I spent a couple of months in California at the beginning of 2023 which is when I did all of the work choosing exactly which concertos would make it onto the final album. This involved finding, practising and learning many concertos written for flute, oboe, violin, harpsichord and so on. It was a thrilling moment when I felt definitively that a piece was working for the piccolo trumpet.” Having made her choices, Balsom approached arranger Simon Wright to adapt the concertos for the piccolo trumpet, making few allowances along the way, except for some transpositions and a scattering of welcome breaks for the soloist. “I can’t think of anyone better to amalgamate these old scores into something coherent and intelligent for the orchestra and modern trumpet,” Balsom says. “He has a brilliant and rare mind both for tiny details, as well as the overarching structure and editing of a piece.” Balsom begins her programme with a violin concerto from Vivaldi’s “La Stravaganza” collection. It’s a dazzling, fizzing performance, a perfect union of instrument and player as Vivaldi’s angular, chromatic lines are dispatched with driving energy. Her account of Handel’s Concerto grosso in D Major is nothing short of radiant, as are the beautiful slow movements, particularly the lofty “Adagio” from Marcello’s D minor Concerto (Track 11), where the instrument makes huge demands on the player. The difficulties of maintaining a consistent, top-quality sound over a long period of time presented challenges in the recording studio, even to the incomparable Balsom. “The piccolo trumpet requires a different kind of stamina, and you can only really create the sweetest, best tone quality for a very short time,” she reveals. “Just as I reached my physical peak for the day, the rest of the ensemble were really getting going and honing their performance.” This meant that Trevor Pinnock and his ensemble had to be at the top of their game at every single moment, to capture Balsom at her best. That involved, no doubt, mutual trust and understanding which only comes through close collaboration. “This album could only have existed with Trevor at the helm,” says Balsom. “His musical choices are so obvious, natural and truthful to me, that he is the only one who has the expertise and the open mindedness to the crazy new idea of putting the piccolo and period instruments together. I felt incredibly privileged to be along for the ride.” Inside the Album Booklet You’ll find three fascinating introductions in the booklet—first, Alison Balsom provides essential background to the recording, outlining her passion for Baroque repertoire and explaining her use of the piccolo trumpet to bring her choice of concertos to life. We hear, too, from Trevor Pinnock who explains his close involvement with this project; and finally, Andrew Stewart places the featured works in valuable historical context. A behind-the-scenes photo from the studio is a delightful portrait of these top-flight musicians in action. Album booklets are available in the latest version of Apple Music Classical, which you can download and enjoy as part of your Apple Music subscription. To access booklets, tap on the book icon at the top of your screen.