[Liner Notes] This is, in one convenient package, something of a survey of the music for trumpet and orchestra, that relatively small group of heady test-pieces for horn players of exceptional skill and stamina. Given the nature of the trumpet, and the subjective feelings that instrument evokes (there is much to be said for conditioning), these are obviously exciting works. The temptation is to call them "brassy," though that adjective is tautological in this instance; better to say they are virtuoso works for trumpeters with a flair for bravura performance and taste enough to make sure their showmanship doesn't overwhelm their musical taste.Three of the works, the Vivaldi, Corelli and Torelli, date from the Italian Baroque. They are representatives of a vast library of concertos grosso, that is, relatively short works which play off soloists or small groups of soloists against the larger orchestra. The Vivaldi is typical of these, a three-movement work (fast, slow, fast), with a short second movement that gives the trumpeters just enough time to catch their breath and clean the spit from their instruments before plunging into the intricacies of the last part. As with most of the instrumental compositions of the Italian Baroque, these are happy efforts, frankly meant for entertainment; looking for deeper mysteries in them is not worth the effort. Better to enjoy without taking them too seriously.Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) is the very archetype of the German Baroque; indeed, in his own time he was far more celebrated than the Leipzig cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach. Unlike Bach, however, Telemann wrote extensively for non-clerical functions. (Bach's secular output is comparatively small.) His concerto, for three trumpets, a pair of oboes and timpani, is, as one would expect, reasonably representative of the music of his time and place. Essentially it has an introduction, and then the Italian fast-slow-fast structure of the movements.Finally, the modern work André Jolivet's second concerto for trumpet, brass, piano and percussion. Born in Paris in 1905, Jolivet studied with Edgar Varese, and gravitated to the 12-tone, atonal school of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Like these Viennese stalwarts, Jolivet became interested in exploring the sonic possibilities of unusual instrumental combinations -- of expanding the orchestral palette with new sonorities and incisive attacks. For Jolivet, the trumpet is not only a "military" instrument, capable only of strident exhortations; it is also a peculiar combination of acoustical properties which can be employed in unique fashion.