Eastop - Hanover Band/Halstead: Mozart Horn works - wonderful !

[Tony Halstead]

I'd agree that the AAM from 1993 was a better recording - Abbey Road - I noted the Nimbus because I think it was a pioneer in the emerging HIP era. Both have that raw almost "rough" but perhaps authentic natural horn sound with its uneven stopped/open notes. On the evidence of a listen earlier to the samples of Eastop he seems more technically secure than Halstead but then we are talking of a time gap and a generation on in training etc. The natural horn is a treacherous beast after all.

I do wonder at the original Leutgeb intended player - was Mozart really having joke with his "mate" or were these pieces very hard to bring off back then and Leutgeb really was expert? Horn concerti were not commonplace but were not rare either - Haydn's 2 [possibly more lost] not to mention Vivaldi and Telemann - a very likeable one in D.

hmmm... my 'take ' on this is that Eastop 'relishes and exagerates' the stopped notes ( nothing wrong with that approach) whereas Halstead tries to 'smooth them over' ( mostly succeeding).
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!

[Nick Armstrong]

hmmm... my 'take ' on this is that Eastop 'relishes and exagerates' the stopped notes ( nothing wrong with that approach) whereas Halstead tries to 'smooth them over' ( mostly succeeding).
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!

[pastoralguy]

I wonder why this cd is being released in the new year rather than December. Surely such a popular programme would have appealed to the Christmas market. I have a horn playing friend for whom this cd would have made an excellent present.

Perhaps Hyperion feel January could do with some brightening up.

[MickyD]

I used to have a Das Alte Werke LP of Hermann Baumann playing the concertos on a natural horn with the Concentus Musicus Wien under Harnoncourt. That really was the first attempt at HIP, as far as I know. It is available on CD, I think - would be interested to compare it with the later offerings.

[Nick Armstrong]

I have a horn playing friend for whom this cd would have made an excellent present.

May I suggest an amazon gift token or an old-school IOU?

[verismissimo]

Over recent months I've been acquiring (2nd hand, for pennies) lots of Hanover Band's early recordings. Standout for me are the Haydn symphonies (of course), Beethoven S1 and S5. Top of that list two Mozart discs - the Requiem (with the wonderful Gundula Janowitz - I was there for the live performance - where was it?) and the HORN CONCERTOS with the dazzling A Halstead.

The only disappointment is the Beethoven PC1 where Mary Verney is recorded far too far back on her Broadwood.

[pastoralguy]

May I suggest an amazon gift token or an old-school IOU?

Wouldn't that entail gratification being delayed?!

[MickyD]

Over recent months I've been acquiring (2nd hand, for pennies) lots of Hanover Band's early recordings. Standout for me are the Haydn symphonies (of course), Beethoven S1 and S5. Top of that list two Mozart discs - the Requiem (with the wonderful Gundula Janowitz - I was there for the live performance - where was it?) and the HORN CONCERTOS with the dazzling A Halstead.

The only disappointment is the Beethoven PC1 where Mary Verney is recorded far too far back on her Broadwood.

Make sure you get hold of the Hanover Band's two Weber discs, and if you can track it down, a 2 CD set called 'Beethoven and the Philharmonic', a reconstruction of a 19th century concert, which features a truly electrifying account of Cherubini's "Anacreon" overture...best thing on the set! There was also a very good Mendelssohn compilation with Christopher Kite giving a performance of the 1st piano concerto on an ethereal-sounding fortepiano..particularly beguiling in the slow movement.

[Gordon]

Concertos: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London (15-18 October 2013)

Quintet: Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Loughton, Essex (18 February 2011)

Thanks Cal!! Acoustic always important as long as the engineers allow it to have its rightful place.

hmmm... my 'take ' on this is that Eastop 'relishes and exagerates' the stopped notes ( nothing wrong with that approach) whereas Halstead tries to 'smooth them over' ( mostly succeeding).
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!

Quite so and long may it continue. I do think that too much virtuosity can hide aspects of some music - the sense of struggle. In the early days of HIP one did get a better sense of that struggle than lately. Virtuosity can perhaps say more about the performer than the music? But it also is the property of the performer that gives him/her the choice of interpretation.

Could it be that Mozart was being more than just playful with Leutgeb? Also that he was well aware of the different timbres of those stopped notes and would deliberately expect them to be allowed their natural place and character rather than being smoothed over - as would be the case with later valved instruments for modern ears now used to them?

Must find a natural horn recording of the 2 Haydns, looking in the collection I find I don't have one. Any recommendations? Recommendations for other horn concertos eg from the Bohemians Stich/Punto et al would also be gratefully received - to be enjoyed while we wait for January....

[MickyD]

Gordon - Anthony Halstead did a nice recording of the 1st Haydn horn concerto along with brother Michael's, plus the Haydn Symphony No. 31 'Hornsignal' - with the Hanover Band on Nimbus.

[teamsaint]

Over recent months I've been acquiring (2nd hand, for pennies) lots of Hanover Band's early recordings. Standout for me are the Haydn symphonies (of course), Beethoven S1 and S5. Top of that list two Mozart discs - the Requiem (with the wonderful Gundula Janowitz - I was there for the live performance - where was it?) and the HORN CONCERTOS with the dazzling A Halstead.

The only disappointment is the Beethoven PC1 where Mary Verney is recorded far too far back on her Broadwood.

I Hope its as good as you say Verrers !!

[MrGongGong]

hmmm... my 'take ' on this is that Eastop 'relishes and exagerates' the stopped notes ( nothing wrong with that approach) whereas Halstead tries to 'smooth them over' ( mostly succeeding).
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!

(I probably need to ask a few folks about the context of this..... but)

I like the way that the difference in timbre of the differently played notes (stopped, half-stopped, open etc ) is part of the music.
What I hear (like when I listen to Shakuhachi music) is something that Western music lost when things became more standardised and instruments were "improved" so that every note would have a similar spectral quality.

When I listen to Balthasar Streiff (or Arkady Shilkloper) playing alphorn I don't hear the 7th and 11th harmonics as "out of tune" just part of the specific intonation of that instrumental sound.

[Barbirollians]

I wonder why this cd is being released in the new year rather than December. Surely such a popular programme would have appealed to the Christmas market. I have a horn playing friend for whom this cd would have made an excellent present.

Perhaps Hyperion feel January could do with some brightening up.

How about the Dennis Brain ICON box ? For someone whose technique ,according to one poster , was not up to modern standards he plays surprisingly well .

[LaurieWatt]

I am the proud owner of an advance copy of the forthcoming (January 2015) Hyperion release of Mozart's Horn Concertos and Quintet, played by Pip Eastop on natural horn with the Hanover Band conducted by ... Tony Halstead!

Can't stop listening to it !!
B




(Co-exec. produced by LaurieWatt of this parish - if you look at the small print carefully above!)

Jaw-dropping horn work technically, but never at the expense of fun and musicality. The cadenzas are particularly fantastic, virtuosic, chromatic... Everyone (even the Mozart-doubters) ought to hear the cadenza at the end of the first movement of No 4 (track 4 of the disc) - an absolute show-stopper!

Here’s the instrument:



And here’s a great action shot of soloist and conductor!



Samples already available here:

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/ym.asp?ym=2015_01&vw=dc

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA68097

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/mozart-horn-concertos/id929087641?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

I was going to add this to 'in the pipeline' or 'new releases' but thought it merited a thread to itself...

For those who may still be interested in sampling this, John Suchet is featuring it every day, at 10.15am, as his Album of the Week, this week, on that other music programme we are not allowed to mention on the R3Forum!!

[Tony Halstead]

How about the Dennis Brain ICON box ? For someone whose technique ,according to one poster , was not up to modern standards he plays surprisingly well .

Er, um... what the poster of message #5 actually said/ wrote was
"I know this will sound like heresy to some
but (IMV) Pip Eastop is a far more skilful and fluent player than Dennis Brain was
even though Dennis was a genius and a truly great musician " -which is not quite the same thing as saying that Brain's 'technique was not up to modern standards'!

It's almost impossible and probably unwise to attempt to make a valid comparison between the Brain and the Eastop recordings since DB was playing a valved horn and PE a valveless one.