I was long a fan of the greatest trumpeter of them all, Maurice André, who has, sadly, now hung up his mouthpiece. However, Mr. Hardenberger is one of a number of worthy successors. The centrepiece of this CD are the two great classical concertos, the Haydn and the Hummel, both, curiously, written for the same man, Anton Weidinger, court trumpeter for the Esterházy family. Weidinger was also an inveterate tinkerer and he constantly sought to make the trumpet play a wider range of notes, by means of extra bits of tube, operated by keys. Haydn was written for the Mk. I and Hummel for the Mk.II Weidinger.
All are played with wonderful fluency and style by Mr. Hardenberger, ably backed by Nev and the ASMF.