MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Buy through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

Sound Samples and Downloads

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Horn Concerto No.1 in D major (1762) [16:54]
Symphony No.31 in D major Hornsignal (1765) [28:29]
Michael HAYDN (1737-1806)
Horn Concerto in D major (c.1777) [15:24]
Anthony Halstead (natural horn)
The Hanover Band/Roy Goodman
rec. January 1989, Frognal School, Hall
NIMBUS NI 5190 DDD [60:47]

Experience Classicsonline



 
This disc was recorded over two decades ago but its presence in Nimbus’s catalogue is certainly well warranted. The performances are full of character and acumen, and you won’t go far wrong if you acquire these traversals.
 
Halstead turned increasingly to conducting in the 1990s, though he’d certainly waved a stick about long before then. Nevertheless I look on the late 1980s, rightly or wrongly, as a sustained period of brilliance in his horn playing and, here, as an exponent of the natural horn, with its hand-stopping demands. There is no diminution of quality in his Haydn concerto performances — Michael, as well as Joseph, is represented.
 
Joseph Haydn’s D major Concerto calls upon a command of high harmonies as well as the ability to sustain notes from the horn’s lower range. Here Halstead proves imperturbable maintaining a fine body of tone as he negotiates his way through sustained notes, trills, and the wide range necessary. His slow movement is gravely spun and his own cadenza excellently in keeping stylistically.
 
Conjecturally dated to 1777, Michael Haydn’s concerto, in the same key of D major, is interestingly proportioned, opening with a graceful Larghetto. Halstead’s extensive and virtuosic central movement cadenza is realised with panache and the Menuett that ends the word is deftly pleasing. Goodman’s accompaniment throughout both these works is athletic, lean and collaborative. He and the Hanover Band contribute an appropriate Hornsignal Symphony, nicely textured, full of proportionate vigour. The concertante roles for the string principals in the finale are dutifully taken, though occasionally intonation wavers.
 
The recording was made at Frognal School, not at the usual company base at Wyastone, and it sounds very well indeed, warm and not cloudy. The notes are by John Humphries who did excellent work in editing Joseph Haydn’s concerto. If you have Halstead’s fine Mozart Concertos disc you might well want to add this all-Haydn one to it.
 
Jonathan Woolf
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.