The Esterházy princes’ love of hunting prompted their ‘house composer’ Joseph Haydn to make extensive use of the horn. At the time, this was still the hand horn (Waldhorn), limited to ‘natural’ harmonics, since it did not yet have valves. Between 1761 and 1790 there were a total eighteen horn players in princely service, but no trumpeters! So, in his Symphony no.48 of 1769, for example, Haydn used the horns as ‘replacement trumpets’, instructing them to play an octave higher than usual. The horns strike a flamboyant note in Haydn’s symphonies, which is probably why an anonymous copyist of no.59 dubbed it the ‘Fire’ Symphony. The Symphony no.31 ‘Horn Signal’ (1765) gives its name to this thirteenth volume in the Haydn2032 Edition. The four horns ring out majestically and the musicians of Il Giardino Armonico perform this music in their characteristically impetuous style, under the fiery direction of Giovanni Antonini.

The five-part writing for strings has its period of greatest development in the 16th and 17th centuries, only to fall into a progressive obsolescence. The most commonly used instrumental ensemble included two violins, alto and tenor viola da braccio, cello and basso continuo. Of this quintet, the instrument that undergoes a progressive dismissal is the viola tenore, which in this recording we propose in its original late seventeenth century mounting.

Maya Magub writes: “The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the arts in many diverse ways, not all detrimental. History has always seen the arts flourish in times of hardship, and this was no different, spawning some incredible innovations out of necessity. Soon after news of the virus’ spread came to light, the movie studios here in Los Angeles found a solution to the restraints of lockdowns and social distancing by helping players like me to set up temporary home studios. Miraculously, we were able to record full movie scores remotely, and I found myself learning basic engineering skills. With this new skillset that had become part of everyday life for many musicians, I was excited to realize that it was possible to play ‘together’ with other musicians, despite not sharing a physical space, by recording separately. It suddenly occurred to me that the perfect fit for this ‘remote chamber music’ was the musical canon.

"In our new age of Zoom, this process became more like sending a ‘musical letter’ by mail, each of us recording as a leader and then waiting to follow and be inspired by another player in the next canon. The project evolved into a truly creative collaboration, with emails and internet calls across time zones about musical ideas as well as the technical process of recording. With the constraints of recording in separate spaces and very different acoustics came the opportunity to position microphones very closely. Without using too much of each performer’s live acoustic and through close microphone positioning, we were able to capture a very ‘real’ and immediate sound which communicates vividly and could later be put into the same virtual acoustic or musical ‘space’.”

The latest release from renowned period ensemble La Serenissima celebrates the life and work of Nicola Matteis the Younger. Born in London to an Italian father and English mother, Matteis was immersed in the style of Henry Purcell before leaving England in 1700 for the Imperial Court in Vienna. All of the music on the album is – rather fortuitously – Carolean; either written for Charles II of England, or for (or in the realm of ) Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It is all too easy to think that the English style and English musicians were unknown on the continent in the early C18, but this selection of music shows that this wasn’t (always) the case. There are some jubilant dances and dance suites featured here as well as a ravishingly beautiful Vivaldi concerto and two superb Chaconnes, one by an Englishman, and one by an Italian.

REVIEW:

The strings of La Serenissima – notably young in personnel here – show evident enthusiasm for Chandler’s direction throughout, and respond with precision and clarity...Listening to this Englishman and his ensemble is always refreshing.

-- Gramophone

The STUMM family stands alongside Schnitger and Silbermann as one of Germany’s most famous organ-building dynasties. It was founded by Johann Michael Stumm. He and five generations of his descendants built some 400 organs between Cologne and Karlsruhe, Luxemburg and Amorbach – a tradition unique in the history of German organ building. The oldest surviving organ by Johann Michael Stumm, in the Lutheran church in Rhaunen, dates from 1723. The latest findings show that it was built as early as 1715 – with Johann Michael working alongside his instructor Otto Reinhard Metzenius. The last instrument from the Sulzbach workshop was built for Niederhosenbach in 1895. The sixth generation of the organ-building dynasty includes Gustav Stumm, who had his last workshop in Kirn in the Rhineland-Palatinate. That was where he built the organ for the Catholic church in Rhaunen in 1893. He died in 1906, his final work for Traisen left unfinished.

The baroque trumpeter Josh Cohen is among the most sought-after clarino specialists in North America. A native of the Washington, DC area, he performs regularly with most of the leading early music ensembles in North America and has appeared as principal or solo baroque trumpet with ensembles such as Tafelmusik (Toronto), Washington Bach Consort, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Arion Orchestre Baroque (Montreal), The Bach Sinfonia (Washington, DC), Seraphic Fire (Miami), Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), and the Sebastians (New York) to name but a few.

The development of historically informed trumpet playing has come a long way since the very early days of the movement, from coiled trumpets – first produced by Steinkopf-Finke, and played by Walter Holy in a 1962 recording of the Second Brandenburg Concerto under Harnoncourt – to the first modern baroque trumpets of Meinl & Lauber. Devoted to a broad cross-section of trumpet repertoire from the late seventeenth century through the mid-eighteenth, this recording shows how far the art of playing the baroque trumpet has advanced.

REVIEW:

This release by Baroque trumpeter Josh Cohen and the small Ensemble Sprezzatura features sounds from a natural valveless trumpet that are not often heard. Cohen is one of a group of players, at first mostly American, who have cultivated not only the playing technique but the repertory that goes with this instrument, much of it German and most of it unknown. For the full effect, sample the high Cs in several movements of the Sinfonia à 7 of Johann Samuel Endler. Another highlight is Telemann's Concerto in D major, TWV 43:D7, where the continuo group includes a bassoon, and Telemann gets delightful sonorities out of this rather unwieldy group. The backing from Ensemble Sprezzatura under director Daniel Abraham is lively and sensitive to the soloist's challenges. Brass players may be especially alert to the technical rigors involved in Cohen's playing, but any Baroque enthusiast will find this a diverting release that brings home just how far trumpet playing has advanced over the last 50 years.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Six dozen is half a gross. And Georg Philipp Telemann composed that many cantatas for the Frankfurt Church Year of 1714/15. cpo, Felix Koch, the Gutenberg Soloists and the Neumeyer Consort have taken up the cause to record this so-called "French church year" in its entirety – a mighty project that is all the more impressive given that the creative spirit behind these scores never worked en gros. Although he usually limited his instrumentation to two oboes, strings and basso continuo, adding a flute, bassoon, horns, trumpets and timpani for special Sundays or festive occasions, the composer's talent for orchestration was evidently boundless. He finds the appropriate sounds for his musical "sermon" on every theological topic. Every subject determined by the church calendar is reflected in his own individual way with a range of expression from the contemplative to the theatrical – and we are only one-third of the way through this fascinating journey.