Mozart Horn Concertos: Double Bubble

Two discs of Mozart Horn Concertos day: Pip Eastop, who we met most recently here, with the Hanover Band and fellow horn player Anthony Halstead, on Hyperion, and Alec Frank-Gemmill with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan on BIS.

... and here's the promo video for the Hyperion:

Eastop begins with the Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat, K 417. He plays on a natural horn, and so there are no valves: he is limited to the harmonic series and hand-stopping (the timbrally "sharp" sound that raises a pitch by a semitone, and half-stopping, which lowers it). Eastop is one of the great hand-horn virtuosos: he plays with remarkable ease. this first movement of K 417 is fresh as a daisy. Anthony Halstead, himself a famous horn player, marshalship forces brilliantly, too, in a real meeting of minds. The harmonic darkening when Mozart moves to the minor is beautiful indeed, a nocturnal forest scene. There are no extant cadenzas by Mozart for these concerts, so everyone plays a different one: Eastop's is imaginative, exploratory, timbrally diffeeniaed:

Alex Frank-Gemmill plays with a modern insrument, so in a sense it feels like the melodic lines haven ironed out. And on a modern instrument, one obviously comes up against Dennis Brain and his legendary recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Karajan (not to mention , Tuckwell, Civil, et al). It's no surprise the orchestra is the Swedish Chamber orchestra, is used as Frank-Gmmill leads the Gothenburg orchestra so we're keeping it within the country!. His reading of the first movement does sound a little too smooth after Eastop; Eastop has just that touch more inagination. Put simply, Frank-Gemill/McGegan is well-behaved, Eastop/Halstead seem fresher, closer to the spirit of Mozart:

No doubting Frank-Gemmill's expressivity in the slow movement, but it is a touch upholstered. Some nice ornaments, though:

Halstead's opening to the slow movement moves nicely and yet is so eloquent, an eloquence absolutely matched by Eastop. A nice little touch of "wha-wha' noe manipulation, too, vey characterful:

The main theme of the Rondo so impeccably of the hunt, is beautifully coloured in the natural horn version; wha is amazing his how Eastop finds nuance in this movement. he music sketches beautifully for lyricism. Again, the darker side of the music, so often glossed over, is her fully appreciated. But it is the exuberance of Eastop's lip trills that is so relishable:

The Hanover Band begin the famous Fourth Concerto (E flat, K 495) with real drama, as if this is the opening to an operatic aria. There is a whiff of the grease-paint about this, and it is all the better for it. Eastop's cadenza is remarkable: he is absolutely fearless:

Frank-Gemmill and McGegan ae sprightlier here, and this is a fine performance from them all round; my final vote remains with Eastop however. Together, Eastop and Halstead retain an underlying tensile strength that Frank-Gemmill and McGegan can weaken. That said, there are some imaginative flights of fancy with the line. Frank-Gemmill plays on a single B flat Alexander instrument which explains the nicely bright, free-flow sound:

Honours are evenly split in the slow movement, which bings us to the famous finale. Perhaps inevitably, Eastop on his natural horn has more of a sense of the hunt. Tempo is perfect; and how daring and colourful sound some of the lines with the stopping there is an inserted cadenza which once more soars far above anything Mozart ever wrote:

.. after that, Frank-Gemmill sound rather vanilla, unfortunately:

The Third Concerto (E flat, K 447) is arguably the most loved after the Fourth. It is perfectly proportioned and beautifully written; it also doesn't go quite as high as Second and Fourth!. Eastop is magical here; the is a moment of high beauty and stasis on just one sustained note, unaccompanied as Mozart approaches the recapitulation. Here is a true understanding of Mozat's processes:

Over on BIS, McGegan shapes the orchestral exposition well, and Frank-Gemmill is nicely eloquent. Of course, when it comes to the 'echoing' phrases they seem to be less effective without the stopping, and for all of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra's cleanliness of execution, they need a touch more character (character that The Hanover Band has in spades):

Frank-Gemmill's slow movement moves nicely, but again it is Eastop who gets close to the heart of the matter. Fank-Gemmill does like his flourishes, though, and they certainly add interest. He tossss off a few in the finale, too:

But listen to the sheer eve of Easop, coupled with the extra colour of teh period orchestra (including wind):

Finally, the problematic First Concerto, a torso usually of only two movements. Eastop plays two movements (which is after all what we have) with the second in a reconstruction byStephen Roberts as opposed to the usual Süßmeyer. The piece is lower pitched, not just D-Major instead of E flat, but in terms of range, too. That doesn't make it any less good a piece, of course, it was just Mozart adapting to the ageing Leutgeb (the dedicatee of the four concertos). D-Major is a nice and brisk key, anyway, outdoorsy, and how it comes across in the Eastop:

I do like Frank-Gemmill's way with the first theme - it has a nice swagger:

BIS adds a slow movement: Adagio, from the Violin Concerto K 211 (arranged and orchestrated Frank-Gemill and Roberts). It's an interesting idea, and many of the melodic shapes do indeed fit the horn well. I even includes a cadenza,bautifully done by Frank-Gemmill:

Frank-Gemmill's finale begins jauntily enough but there is the odd sag that impedes momenum. And neat though teh Swedish CO is, teh excitement never quite rises, nor the wit:

In contrast, The Hanover Band eases into the first movement beautifully:

Eastop is full of character. His finale drips with contrasts, with edge and softness, all held within one perfect unit.

The Hypeion recording ends with the Horn Quintet in E flat, K 407, with the Eroica Quartet. Although in the same venue as teh concertos, this recording seems a touch over-reverbed. The actual performance is beautiful, though - chamber music personified. A real feeling of themes exchanged cordially in the first movement, which extends to the glorious Andante. The Rondo is interesting as it takes the hunting rondos of the concertos into a more intimate space; this is not to imply it is shorn fo drama though, at least not here. Lovely how one can hear every one of Mozart's string lines intertwine against the horn line:

.. the BIS discs closes with a Concerto “No. 0”. Well, if Bruckner can have Symphonies Nos. 0 and 00, why not Mozart?! This is two movements, K 370b (reconstructed Stephen Roberts) and a Rondeau, K 371 (completed by Roberts). These are both fragments of horn concerto movements left by Mozart.

K 370b was Mozart's first attempt at a horn concerto and dates from 1781. It was not intended for the famous cheesemonger hornist Ignaz Leutgeb, but possibly for Ignaz Eisen. It is charming, but perhaps not of the same star as the canonical concertos:

The Rondo was sketched on the same manuscript but parts of the completion were lost until recently (some 60 bars). Some will know his as a stand-alone Concert Rondo, and Frank-Gemmill has a nice and light touch to the theme here. I assume the cadenza is by Frank-Gemmill himself:

You've probably gathered I side with Easop as the more complete Mozart experience here, from all angles, both musical and musicological. The Hyperion is a CD, the BIS an SACD.

The Eastop/Hyperion is available from Amazon here, the Frank-Gemmill/McGegan here. Streaming below.