Serving as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 2008, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has continued over several decades to pursue his musical interests as a trumpet player, recording producer, broadcaster and academic. He has recorded fourteen solo trumpet albums and published almost all the arrangements in print, either for Resonata Press, Boosey & Hawkes or Faber Music. This includes the co-composition of a celebrated Sonata for Trumpet and Piano ‘after Richard Strauss’ which has, since 2020, quickly become a staple of international recitals and major competitions. Freeman-Attwood is committed to musical education, leading a number of international schemes to expand the possibilities and horizons for young musicians, most recently through the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Scheme and a pioneering relationship between the Academy and the Czech Philharmonic.

Having recorded and published his readings of the Bach Cello Suites on Deux-Elles and Peters Edition respectively, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood returns to Bach and imagines what the composer might have done if certain pieces had been originally conceived for a solo instrument – and, in particular, the trumpet. Jonathan has selected keyboard music where melody and harmony are wedded so closely as to offer fresh-minted linear texts of virtuosity and emotional variety. In compelling performances for solo trumpet, two pieces for flute are also included: Bach’s celebrated 4-movement Partita and, as a coda, his friend Telemann’s Fantasy in A major.