The first question
that I hear you shout is ‘What is a
Corno da Caccia?’ and then ‘What kind
of Trumpet is being used?’ Well it seems
rather curious to me that in these days
when CD booklets often say more about
the performers and instruments than
about the music, this one says nothing
about the instruments being used. A
bit of detective work proves necessary.
Precise dates of these
compositions are unknown but the two
concertos for horn on this CD are from
the 1720s (Heinichen) and the 1760s
(Neruda). Although some developments
were taking place at the time, the horn
remained unvalved with chromatic notes
obtainable by crooks of different lengths.
Later hand-stopped chromatic notes were
discovered. The effect was an ability
to play much further down in the bass
clef and to play non-diatonic melodic
notes. These developments can be heard
in the Neruda concerto and it’s interesting
to compare the two works. Neruda’s concerto
is far more ‘style-galante’ than the
others and its slow movement’s elegance
begins with the horn in its lyrical
highest register. Its mini-cadenza explores
further with chromatic added notes.
The third movement, marked Vivace, explores
the fullest register and has some delightful,
typical sequential writing. This is
still the age of the harpsichord continuo
and it is used in all of the concertos
apart from the famous Hummel Concerto
which ends the CD.
Speaking of the trumpet,
it was no longer quite the ceremonial
instrument by the mid-18th
Century that it had been even 50 years
before. Nevertheless it maintained its
pride of place. There was even invented
a particularly versatile creature called
a ‘slide trumpet’. No matter what variant
was used, the trumpet was mostly valveless.
Composers enjoyed writing for it. Its
ability to carry a melody clearly over
any texture in any acoustic was an obvious
advantage. The five movement grand Ouverture
(c.1700) by Schwartzkopff which opens
the CD proves the ceremonial point,
with its rather pompous Chaconne and
opening Ouverture. The music was written
in Paris and is much in keeping with
its time and place, compared with the
Hummel concerto (1803) which ends the
CD. In the Hummel we can hear how the
trumpet had achieved success as a serious
concert instrument with its famous and
flashy finale. In between comes the
rather serious Molter, (1740) and the
imaginative Heinichen (c.1725), whose
concerto is for two ‘corni da caccia’
includes some fantastic high register
trills in contrast with the two flutes
each often in thirds. There is also
the polished if somewhat uninspired
Spergen (1778) whose work is in just
two movements. Each work demonstrates
the instrument’s development and in
this recording, as befits such a fine
player, a fair degree of virtuosity.
This last work was actually written
for the ‘Clarino Principale’ an instrument
popular for a while in Vienna where
the composer worked.
As I said the booklet
notes by Manfred Fechner tells us nothing
of the instruments being used. However
they are good on the composers and on
their music as was typical of many 1980s
discs. The cover gives us a clue with
Guttler holding a shiny four-valved
instrument.
The performances throughout
are clean and clear although not on
authentic instruments and with quite
a large body of strings. The harpsichord
is strongly prominent and the woodwind
play quite beautifully. Tempi are never
sluggish and there is no sentimentality
in the slow movements. The music eases
itself gracefully from phrase to phrase.
Although these recordings
are twenty years old they do not show
their age. This SACD is one of the best
and most natural sounding I have yet
encountered.
Gary Higginson
Ludwig Guttler (trumpet and corno da caccia) 
CAPRICCIO
SACD 71019 [66.34] 
