TREASURES FOR HORN AND TRUMPET. Gregory...

The first of these digital CDs focuses on the 18th Century, the second on the 17th to 20th centuries and the third on the 20th Century alone. The common denonimator is outstanding if varied trumpet playing. Giangiulio, principal with the Dallas Symphony, offers bright, stylish, laid-back performances of Hertel, Eccles and Grimm-Freres in “Treasures” and of Handel, Fantini, Hovhaness and five others in “Pipes”; Stevens, principal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is more flamboyantly brilliant in aggressively contemporary pieces by Reynolds, Kraft, Chou Wen-chung and four others. Hustis, principal horn with the Dallas Symphony, deftly varies his styles in works by L. Mozart, Beethoven (Sextet for Two Horns) and Schumann. Riedo plays the “pipes” as Giangiulio’s equal in the first disc and Stevens gets sterling support from Bobo and others.