Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (trumpet), Tom Freeman-Attwood (trumpet), Anna Szałucka (piano)
Linn Records CKD736 78:41 mins
This reimagining of the music of George Frideric Handel marks Jonathan Freeman-Attwood’s fruitful and ongoing association with Linn Records. The album also affirms Freeman-Attwood’s musical partnerships, with his son and fellow trumpet player Tom, as well as colleagues Timothy Jones, his co-arranger,
and pianist Anna Szałucka.
Twenty-eight tracks traverse works from vocal and instrumental genres. The ‘idiomatic reassigning’ mentioned by Freeman-Attwood in his liner notes includes four
new sonatas derived from music initially fashioned as concertos, a laudable nod to the cross-genre fertilisations obtained in Handel’s own lifetime.
Freeman-Attwood’s sound is mellifluous and gentle, delicately inflected with vibrato, especially in ‘With thee th’unsheltered moor I’d tread’ from Solomon. He is complemented by Szałucka’s deft and poised playing. Three duets celebrate the Freeman-Attwood family’s affinity with the trumpet, as son Tom joins his father in selections from Handel’s music for the stage. The highlight of these must surely be ‘Brilla nell’alma’ from Alessandro; its transformation from a solo aria is masterly and the effect is enthralling. The bright optimism of Paolo Antonio Rolli’s text as sung by the character Roxana in Act 3 is well-portrayed, prompting us to wonder why this opera is currently so unjustly neglected.
Among the album’s four new sonatas, the third in E flat major is taken from the F major solo organ concerto from 1739. We hear the majesty of the original key noted by many 18th-century commentators. Three movements from the D minor keyboard suite of 1720 also undergo a refreshing transformation, with the version for trumpet and piano revealing the music’s textures anew.