Today’s CD features a performance by the acclaimed Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner, conductor.

I’ve always liked performances by Marriner and the Academy. I’ve never heard a bad one. They’re consistent, and consistently first-rate at that.

Trumpet Concerto in E Flat No. 1 is no exception. Written in 1796 (Haydn was 64) for his friend Anton Weidinger, this performance features the late Alan Stringer (1928 – 2012) as the trumpet soloist. And a marvelous player he was, too. Stringer possessed a wonderful fluidity and expressiveness. He seemed to caress the notes. Not bad for a guy who was, at the time of this recording, 66.

Here. Listen for yourself. This is the exact performance to which I’m listening right now.

The entire Trumpet Concerto – all three movements – is a delight. No one movement stands out to me, although I think Movement III (“Allegro”) is just slightly more interesting in its construction. I do so love an allegro movement.

According to its entry on Wiki,

Anton Weidinger developed a keyed trumpet which could play chromatically throughout its entire range. Before this, the trumpet was valveless and could only play a limited range of harmonic notes by altering the vibration of the lips. Most of these harmonic notes were clustered in the higher registers, so previous trumpet concertos could only play scalar melodies at very high pitches (e.g., Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2). Haydn’s concerto includes melodies in the lower register, exploiting the capabilities of the new instrument.

There were attempts all over Europe around the mid-classical era to expand the range of the trumpet using valves, but Weidinger’s idea of drilling holes and covering them with flute-like keys was not a success as it had poorer sound quality. Thus the natural trumpet still had continual use in the classical orchestra whilst the keyed trumpet had barely any repertoire. The valved trumpets used today started to appear in the 1830s.

Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Hob. No. 3 is also quite good. Virtuoso horn player Hermann Baumann is the soloist in this composition as well as the next.

I’m a sucker for the dulcet sound of the French horn. Ever since my wife turned me on the the late, great, legendary Dennis Brain, I’ve listened to horns in a completely different way. (For my money, there was no finer horn player than Dennis Brain. His tone was so smooth and his style so remarkable that I feel all tingly when I listen to his performances of Mozart Horn Concertos 1-4.)

According to his entry on Wiki, “In 1951, Brain became the first person in modern times to perform Joseph Haydn’s Horn Concerto No. 1.”

That, I did not know. I wonder if I have that recording? Hmmm.

Anyway, back to today’s performances of Haydn’s Horn Concertos.

Both are very good, although neither really jumps out at me the way the Trumpet Concerto did. (Movement III of Horn Concerto No. 2 in D — around the 2:56 mark — features some remarkable playing.)

Here is the performance of Horn Concerto No. 1 in D (Hob VIID:3) to which I’m listening this morning:

I could not find a YouTube clip of the performance of Horn Concerto No. 2 in D to which I’m listening this morning. So you’ll just to imagine something really awesome.