The Golden Age of the Horn — Double Plus Good
By Ralph Graves
I am always up for a new Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) recording. JoAnn Falletta has made this a world-class orchestra and done it in her own way.
Sure, they’ve released recordings of the basic repertoire. But their strength is bringing their high degree of musicianship to marginal works. Living composers, 20th-century music, works from different eras and cultures — all benefit from the BSO magic.
In this case, it’s 18th-century horn concertos. Specifically, concertos for two horns. Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdelewicz are both members of the BPO — Principal Horn and Associate Principal Horn respectively. Individually and together these two players deliver some exciting and impressive performances.
In the 18th century, the horn was just a long tube without valves. That limited the notes to the harmonic series of tube. In the low register, notes are spaced far apart. It’s only in the extreme upper register that they’re close enough together to form scales. This means these performers need lips of steel to get through these concertos!
Both players are using modern instruments with valves. That makes playing the notes easier, but there’s still a lot of playing in the stratosphere. Plus there are rapid arpeggios, trills, and other challenging techniques involved.
Most of these composers, except for Leopold Mozart, may be unfamiliar. But that doesn’t mean their music isn’t worthy of attention. After hearing these works, I formed a different opinion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s horn concertos. He would have been familiar with some of these composers. Mozart may have improved the form, but he didn’t invent it out of whole cloth.
JoAnn Falletta conducts the BPO with a light touch. This is music of the Enlightenment, where elegance and balance were the hallmarks. The performances are so fine one wonders why we don’t hear these works in concert — at least once in a while.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in the music of Haydn or Mozart. Or any fan of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Golden Age of the Horn
Concertos for Two Horns
Hoffmeister, L. Mozart, Pokorny, Witt
Jacek Muzyk, Daniel Kerdelewicz, horn
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Naxos 8.574646
