University of Virginia Library

RECORDS

Berinbaum Presents Stellar Debut

By TERI TOWE

With this album, Martin
Berinbaum makes a stellar
debut as a recording artist. His
tone is rich and smooth, his
technique is faultless, and he
has one characteristic that
relatively few trumpeters seem
to possess – musicality.
Berinbaum is a product of the
Juilliard School of Music in
New York and has already
created sensations in that city
with two concerts that brought
him rave reviews.

Berinbaum's interpretation
of the famous Haydn Trumpet
Concerto is certainly one of
the best currently available. In
spirit, it is much skin to the
now long deleted recording by
George Eskdale, the British
trumpeter largely responsible
for the revival of interest in the
Haydn Concerto during the
1930's. Berinbaum, however,
indulges in judicious
ornamentation and
embellishment, an aspect of
Haydn interpretation
unrecognized during Eskdale's
day and largely ignored by
trumpeters since then.
However, while carefully
providing ornamentation,
Berinbaum neglects, as do
many of his colleagues, to
insert a cadenza at the obvious
point near the end of the third
movement. For me, no matter
how widespread, this omission
is nearly fatal, and mars what is
otherwise a splendid
performance.

The paradox of adding
stylish but unwritten
ornamentation and omitting a
cadenza in the third movement
of the Haydn Concerto is
symbolic of a contradiction
which pervades this record. On
the one hand, there is a great
concern with an authenticity,
and on the other hand there is
a rather callous disregard for it.

Why, for example, with the
mammoth repertoire of
Baroque music for the
trumpet, does Berinbaum insist
on recording an arrangement
for trumpet and strings of an
Albinoni composition
originally written for violin and
continuo? Who knows? And to
add insult to injury, there is
practically no ornamentation
or embellishment added to
either the Albinoni or Torelli
works, both of which badly
need it.

The performance of the
Concerto by Johann Nepomuk
Hummel is worth he price of
the entire album. Berinbaum
seems as "at home" here as he
does in the Haydn, and his
reading is an enthusiastic and
spirited one which makes the
work, which is not a
masterpiece, sound much
better than it is. And what
better compliment can you pay
a musician?

Sonically, this album is
indeed spectacular. Available in
both "regular" stereo and in
quadraphonic versions, this
disk presents some of the most
realistic and natural sound, at
all frequencies, that I have
heard in some time. If you are
intending to purchase stereo or
quadraphonic equipment, this
album will make an excellent
test record besides being,
despite some drawbacks, a
welcome addition to your
library.

Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E
Flat Major

Hummel: Trumpet Concerto in
E Flat Major

Albinoni: Concerto "Saint
Marc"

Torelli: Sonata a Cinque, No.

Martin Beuibaum, trumpet
Johannes Somary, conductor
English Chamber Orchestra
Harold Lester, harpsichord

Vanguard VSQ 30012, VCS
10098, $3.98