Telemann is known to have composed several concertos using the trumpet: there is one for trumpet and 2 oboes, another for trumpet and violin, and at least two for 3 trumpets. As far as I am aware, however, he wrote only one concerto in which a single trumpet is the sole soloist, namely the Trumpet Concerto in D major for trumpet, violins, and basso continuo. In fact very few other trumpet concerti by German composers are known from this period, and it is possible that Telemann’s is among the first of them to use this title, though essentially this is work in the Italianate sonata da chiesa (Church Sonata) form. Though its exact date is not known, this sparkling work dates from somewhere in the period 1710-1720, so most probably while Telemann was City Director of Music in Frankfurt, a post he occupied from 1712 to 1721. The sonata da chiesa customarily has four movements arranged in a slow-fast-slow-fast pattern, and this is the case here. Telemann makes extraordinary demands on the trumpet soloist: the part requires exceptional control of breathing and embouchure. As Crispian Steele-Perkins has commented: ‘What is remarkable is that Telemann must have known a player capable of playing this upon a 7 foot 8 inch piece of pipe’.

The trumpet is certainly the focus of attention in the opening Adagio, but here it is its expressive and sonorous qualities that come to the fore. In the following Allegro, the interest is more equably divided between the violins and the trumpet, while in the Grave third movement, in B minor, the trumpeter is allowed a rest and the expressive phrases are unfolded just by violins and continuo. It is the Allegro finale that really puts the trumpet through its paces, in a bright, joyous conclusion to a concise but entertaining piece.

from notes by Malcolm MacDonald © 2012