Sound the Trumpet!

I’ve been racking my brain for the past few days in an attempt to come up with a topic more “in my wheelhouse” than Alison Balsom’s “Sound the Trumpet” album, but to no avail. Let us count the ways that I have been unsuccessful (though not disappointed) in my attempts:

1. I’m in a celebratory mood, since it’s still Easter. And the trumpet is very celebratory. (So is bacon, come to think of it.)

2. Out of the vast array of period instrument interpreters that have sprung up in the relatively recent past, Trevor Pinnock is far-and-away my favorite.

3. An album whose desire to “celebrate the heroic era of the Baroque trumpet” is achieved by focusing exclusively on the works of Handel and Purcell? Hecks yeah!

4. The natural trumpet is awesome. I have no idea how anyone can play that…or any other trumpet, for that matter. (It’s actually not the only kind of trumpet Balsom can play, but it’s all she plays on this particular album.)

5. The track listings reminded me not only that Purcell wrote a masque/semi-opera of “The Fairy-Queen,” but that he also wrote one for “King Arthur.”

6. Yesterday was Opening Day — Hallelujah! — so anything that was going to further enhance my tendency to use wheelhouse-y idioms was automatically going to receive heavy consideration.

There are more, but let these suffice for the moment. Besides, this clip is probably the most compelling sort of argument that can be made in my defense:

(Bonus trumpet-y awesomeness is available from Gerard Schwarz upon request.)