Something for Thursday

When you're a trumpet player, sooner or later you come up against the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by Haydn. It's one of relatively few notable solo works for the instrument between the Baroque period and the modern years; it's by one of the great composers; and it's a fine piece in its own. There are technical reasons why the trumpet didn't really take off as a melodic instrument until after the invention of valves in the 1820s or so (Haydn's own concerto was written for a keyed trumpet, which was a faulty kludge of an instrument that never really took off), but it's disappointing that none of the great Romantic composers ever saw the instrument as a vehicle for solo work.

Here is a performance by Adolph Herseth playing the solo part. Herseth (one of my great musical heroes) was not a soloist by temperament, but you can hear his amazing skill on full display here.