Meditation

1.  Concert Piece No. 2 in E-flat Major Vassily Brandt (1869-1923)
One of the founders of the Russian brass school and the author of numerous etudes and compositions, Karl Wilhelm Vassily Brandt studied with Karl Zimmermann at the School of Music in Colberg, Germany.
At the age of eighteen Brandt entered the Bad Oeynhausen Orchestra, and following that the orchestra of the Helsinki Orchestral Association under director Robert Kajanus. In 1921 he won the first trumpet position at the Bolshoi Theater.
Brandt wrote his Concert Piece No. 2 in E-flat Major for trumpet and wind orchestra in the romantic style, in which the combination of grand melodiousness and the soloist’s virtuoso technique suggests various expressive possibilities of the instrument.

2. Concerto for Voice and Orchestra       Reinhold Gliere (1875 - 1956)
Prominent composer Reinhold Gliere was born in Kiev into a family of master craftsmen who made brass instruments. In defiance of his parents, Gliere began studying music and later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a gold medal in violin and composition.
In the 1930s Gliere addressed himself to the concerto genre. A true masterpiece in this category of creative work is the Concerto for Voice and Orchestra (1943), dedicated to the great Russian singer Antonina Nezhdanova.
The range of a tessitura soprano almost coincides with the range of a trumpet, so it is interesting how the sound of the trumpet can transmit the image and mood of the composition, mimicking the virtuosic possibilities of the human voice.
The CD contains only the first part of the concerto, which can stand alone as an independent work.

3. Concert Allegro       Vladimir Peskin (1906 - 1988)
Vladimir Peskin—composer, pianist, lover of the trumpet—created a modern repertoire for trumpet in the 1930s at a time when trumpeters had to be satisfied with amateurish pieces written by trumpeters themselves.
Peskin’s friendship with Timofei Dokshitzer, the great Russian trumpeter of the 20th century, played a special role in his compositions. About Peskin’s works Dokshitzer commented, “If music stimulates the mastery of skill, its value increases.”
One of Peskin’s most popular works is the Concert Allegro for trumpet and piano, written in the heroic-romantic style and in the traditional sonata form.

4. Meditation         Nikolay Samokhvalov (1930 - 2005)
Nikolay Samokhvalov combined conducting, composing and teaching activities. While a student of the Suvorov Military School in Saratov, he learned to play the trumpet.
In 1953 Samokhvalov graduated from the military-conducting faculty of Moscow State Conservatory, where he later became a professor. A creative friendship connected him with the wonderful trumpet player Anatoly Pautov,
Vladislav Lavrik’s teacher. Samokhvalov dedicated Meditation, one of his most melodic works, to Pautov.

5. Concerto for Trumpet         Alexander Arutunian (1920)
Alexander Arutunian, a “living legend” of the Armenian school of composition, is professor of the Yerevan State Conservatory.  From 1954 to 1990 he led the Armenian Philharmonic and was named Peoples Artist of the USSR.
His creative style is based on the musical heritage of Armenia and enduring principles of music—classicism and romanticism. A number of works by Arutunian, in particular Concerto for Trumpet, have entered the repertoire of the world’s leading performers.
This work is dedicated to Timofei Dokshitzer, the outstanding Russian trumpeter, who often performed this piece. Later Dokshitzer wrote a cadenza, which became an integral part of the concerto. It is an example of a rare union of composer and performer.

6. Variations on the Theme ‘Carnival of Venice’     Jean-Baptist Arban (1825-1889)
Jean Baptist Arban, the famous French performer on trumpet and cornet, was a composer, conductor and an excellent teacher. He invented the “Arban cornet.” In 1869 at the initiative of Arban, the Paris Conservatory opened a cornet class where he taught.
Russian Tsar Alexander II often invited Arban to play and conduct concerts in St. Petersburg. Variations on the Theme “Carnival of Venice” were published in his famous Grande méthode complète pour cornet à pistons et de saxhorn (1864). 
Since then Variations are not just in the repertoire of trumpeters, but they are also arranged for other brass instruments.

Each of the seven variations demonstrates a certain method of playing the instrument.

Total playing time: 52:35, recorded in Moscow.

Conductors

Valery Khalilov, Sergei Durygin, Andrei Kolotushin

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