Handel – Sonata No. 2 in F minor for Trumpet & Piano (PDF Download)

Sonata No. 2 in F minor (after Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op. 6 No. 4) is a highly integrated orchestral work without the concertante interactions of many of the other eleven examples in this grand Opus 6 collection. This piece offers the arrangers the chance to invent new melodic and motivic exchanges between the trumpet and piano. The contours of the opening Larghetto are as affecting in their unabashed and graceful yearnings as the consequent Allegro is impressively rigorous (Bach can smoke his pipe happily to this). Such is the compression of motivic working that the trumpet has to play different roles in quick succession – either emphatically central to the action or observing from a safe distance. The contrast to the soft-grained tranquillity of the following Largo is palpable. Likewise, the final movement’s incorrigible, pithy declamations celebrate the trumpet’s incisive articulation, capturing Handel’s rattling sabre.