John Nelson conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Recorded at the Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, September & October 1990 & July 1991.
These musicians offer up selections from baroque composers you're probably familiar with (Handel, Scarlatti, Bach) as well as some you might not have heard of (Predieri, Stradella). I bought this at a time in my life when I would buy anything Marsalis released. I stopped doing that not long after this purchase. This CD doesn't get any playing time around here for two reasons:
1) It's hard to find a full CD's worth of good baroque music for trumpet and soprano, so in some cases, the compositions weren't selected for their strength, but rather for their instrumentation. They didn't quite scrape the bottom of the barrel here, but if they had wanted a sequel, scraping would have been necessary.
2) While Battle has a nice lyric soprano voice, I don't feel it is suited to baroque music. Her interpretation and tuning are questionable.
That said, this isn't all bad. Marsalis is nails, as you would expect. To me, the highlight is Let The Bright Seraphim from Handel's oratorio Samson. The Stradella piece was a nice discovery for me.
Previously revisited for the blog:
Two Men with the Blues (2008)
Standard Time, Vol. 4: Marsalis Plays Monk (1999)
Joe Cool's Blues (1995)
Uptown Ruler: Soul Gestures in Southern Blue, Vol. 2 (1991)
The Original Soundtrack From Tune In Tomorrow... (1990)
Crescent City Christmas Card (1989)
Baroque Music for Trumpets (1988)
Carnaval (1987)
J Mood (1986)
Black Codes (From The Underground) (1985)
Trumpet Concertos (1983)
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