Armando Ghitalla - Trumpet Concertos Of Three Centuries (CD)

All Music Guide

Premier's Trumpet Concertos of Three Centuries is a 1987 album featuring trumpet legend Armando Ghitalla and produced by Peter Breiner possibly for Naxos, but not released by them; it finally appeared in 1992 on the Premier Records label. Conductor William Perry is a television composer best known for his soundtrack music for PBS' The Silent Years; both his Concerto for Trumpet, written for Ghitalla, is not a very challenging piece of music, nor is it meant to be. Perry's Concerto is a gentle, good natured and cinematic piece, designed to show off the soloist to his best capabilities. Ghitalla matches model of trumpet to the works included, utilizing a piccolo trumpet for the Molter. While it is a little piercing in tone, the performance does not have the unanimity of approach that Maurice André tended to employ in similar concertos. The Ponchielli concerto is "borrowed," arranged by Breiner from a clarinet concerto. While all of this literature is minor, that is not the main event i...t is Ghitalla, with his pearly, wellarticulated, gracious and clean tone, ringing and clear as a bell.It is not unfair to say that this disc is mainly for trumpet fanciers and players of the instrument. Nevertheless, if the listener falls into either of these categories, then Premier's Trumpet Concertos of Three Centuries is definitely worth checking out, though it is out of print: Bridge Records' reissued this album, with some extras, as Armando Ghitalla: A Trumpet Legacy in 2007. Read more Less