It may be called ‘Concertos
for Four Horns’, but there isn’t actually
a true concerto here! What there is,
is plenty of good music and plenty of
top-class horn playing. The minor complaint
about the title given to the CD only
matters because it has perhaps led –
in recording balance, for example –
to giving the horns excessive prominence
in some of the pieces. But enough of
such quibbles, in the face of an enjoyable,
if not especially remarkable, CD.
Schumann himself is
said to have described the Konzertstück
as "something quite curious"
and I am inclined to agree with him.
I have never been sure that it quite
works, that it quite coheres. But certainly
there are good and striking passages
– as in the interruption of its opening
themes by the horn fanfares and in the
happy bravura of its conclusion – both
well handled in this performance. I
have, though, heard more poetry discovered
in the Romanze than here.
Handel’s Concerto in
F major is a delightful piece. A slow
introduction, which is close kin to
the later introduction to the Royal
Fireworks music. It has a lovely out-of-doors
feel to it and a faster section in which
the horns are heard at something like
their best.
Telemann’s Overture
in F major is a suite in nine movements,
written in Hamburg for a state visit
by the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
It is a series of programmatic pieces,
focused on the waters of the Alster,
one of the three rivers of the great
port of Hamburg and also the name of
a lake in the city - the suite was surely
played outdoors, by the waters? Telemann
represents, with playfulness and wit,
the fauna of the place - as in a movement
called ‘The Concert of the Frogs and
Crows’ and ‘The Song of the Swan’, in
which oboe and bassoon create an enjoyable
melancholy; he gives us aural pictures
of the local landmarks, as in ‘The Glockenspiel
of Hamburg’, represented by harpsichord
and pizzicato strings. A piece entitled
‘The Alster-Echo’ does exactly what
you might expect, through some delightful
imitative writing. In good neo-classical
fashion the Alster is also musically
peopled by the figures of mythology,
with a ‘Resting Pan’ and a final departure
of nymphs and shepherds. Though it is
well and enjoyably played in this recording,
one can’t help feeling that this is
a piece which cries out for performance
on period instruments.
Haydn’s ‘Horn Signal’
symphony is, despite its nickname, not
exclusively dominated by the horns.
Its first movement puts the horns centre-stage
and at the close of the symphony they
are again prominent. Both sequences
call for horn playing of the highest
order, and they get it here from the
American Horn Quartet. But for much
of its length the symphony foregrounds
a number of other solo instruments –
particularly the violin and the cello
and contains some joyous writing for
the whole orchestra. The recording balance
here sometimes seems to project the
horns unduly. Overall, this is a pleasant,
but not exceptional performance of the
symphony, a performance that sometimes
feels as if it needs a bit more urgency.
An enjoyable CD, for
my tastes most wholly successful in
the pieces by Handel and Telemann. There
are, though, better performances of
all the music to be had elsewhere.
Glyn Pursglove
see also review
by Colin Clarke
American Horn Quartet: Kerry Turner, Charles Putnam,
David Johnson, Geoffrey Winter. 
