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I really like this disc, even though I feel a bit "sniffy" about it and feel that I ought to disapprove of a disc of famous pieces by Handel and Purcell arranged for a star "glamour-puss" trumpet soloist. Sure, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood's learned sleeve-notes try to justify the project, but really these pieces are better heard in their "original" versions.
Against all the odds, however, Alison Balsom just about makes it work, thanks not only to her impressive virtuosity and wonderful musicality on a baroque trumpet, but also to the empathetic accompaniment provided by The English Concert led by that doyen of harpsichordists, Trevor Pinnock. I would defy even the worst musical snob not to find something to enjoy here.
The sleeve-note suggests that trumpeters were to the orchestra what castrati were to the opera and that composers such as Handel and Purcell embodied the sound of the human voice in the expressive power of a metal instrument, the trumpet.
For me, the Handel arrangements work the best. The disc opens in splendid fashion with "Sento la gioia", originally a showpiece coloratura aria from the opera "Amadigi Di Gaula" and ends with a wholly successful transposition of Handel's Oboe Concerto. The overture to "Atalanta" and the "Water Piece" , taken from items from "The Water Music" and the opera "Partenope" work equally well. The beautiful aria "Eternal Source of Light Divine" from the "Birthday Ode for Queen Anne" is exquisitely sung by the counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and his voluptuous alto line is effectively embellished by Balsom's liquid trumpet vocalisation.
Balsom provides equally sensitive accompaniment to Lucy Crowe's gorgeous singing of "The Plaint" from Purcell's masque "The Fairy Queen"., where the trumpet effectively replaces the original oboe role. The last time I heard Lucy sing this was back in 1997 when we were both part of group touring France with a production of "Dido and Aeneas" which was "fleshed out" by some other Purcell numbers; even at the age of 18, she was a quite remarkable talent. The other duet between voice and trumpet, "Sound the Trumpet" may have seemed a good idea at the time (Miss Balsom writes enthusiastically about it in the sleeve-notes), but for me it doesn't quite work, no matter how brilliantly Mr. Davies sings and Miss Balsom plays. The arrangements of pieces from "King Arthur" and "The Fairy Queen", however, seem to me to work superbly well.
This disc is a bit gimmicky, I guess, and might not appeal to the "purists". but it will, I am sure, give a lot of people a great deal of pleasure.
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