Re: Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3


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Posted by Klaus on April 25, 2001 at 20:00:34:

In Reply to: Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3 posted by Dan Mordhorst on April 25, 2001 at 17:57:18:

The scores of these 4 brilliant horn concerts by Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart have been with me for almost 4 decades. They might constitute the peak of brass concert writings in history.

Even if they are written for a quite limited instrument, the natural horn, they take that instrument to Hampelian limits, that might only have been surpassed by Beethoven in the 4th horn part of the 3rd movement of his 9th symphony.

It is obviouly understandable that players of other brasses try to claim these concerts for their own instruments. Myself I have used them for a lot of woodshedding on my older Bach Eb alto trombone/DW 12C. Which ended up sounding like a euphonium. (20 years later it takes a Conn 36H/DW7C set-up to get the same sound).

My point is:

Let us use this fine music for our own purposes. But let us not forget, that this music is for horn.

Listen to the Dennis Brain recordings for musicality, phrasing, and clarity.

Listen to a few others for aspects like warmth.

Listen to the rest for how it should not be done. Even good music has a hard time surviving dull interpretations. These concerts might look easy on paper. Still they are used in a lot of European horn auditions to reveal, whether there is a muscian behind the mouthpiece.

Klaus


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