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

[doversoul1]

Much as I like HIPP, I found this performance of the horn a plain hard work to listen to. The excellent Hanover Band sounded like a distant backing. Ah well. A Marmite performance, as Andrew said.

[hafod]

I approached this with expectations high but as a performance it struck me as effortful. The dexterity of the soloist was obvious but some of the sounds produced jarred and the horn dominated too much. I am glad to have heard it if only to know not to buy it. I dug out conductor Halstead's version of the concertos with the AAM and Christopher Hogwood - a much more integrated and balanced reading and, overall, an absolute delight.

[Purcellian]

I approached this with expectations high but as a performance it struck me as effortful. The dexterity of the soloist was obvious but some of the sounds produced jarred and the horn dominated too much. I am glad to have heard it if only to know not to buy it. I dug out conductor Halstead's version of the concertos with the AAM and Christopher Hogwood - a much more integrated and balanced reading and, overall, an absolute delight.

Yes but you d on't get the Quintet K407 on the Hogwood/ Halstead CD and the cadenzas are fairly tame compared to the hyperactive and ear-bending Eastop ones. On the other hand 'H & H' play the charming Rondo in Eb K371 and the Sussmayr version of the D major Concerto's Rondo with its rather haunting plainchant quotation. It's still a short CD at 59 minutes whereas Eastop's comes in at 72 minutes.

[Tony Halstead]

Count me out. I love Mozart but to me this is horrible music. I've twice had to sit through one of these concertos whilst waiting for the proper stuff to start. Even though they were very well known players they convinced me that the horn just isn't a concerto instrument - (sinfonia concertante maybe).

sinfonia concertante maybe

Hmm... would that be the KV297b/anh.9 one that was almost certainly cobbled together by some hack in the 19th century, based on a few scribbled scraps of 'Mozartian' tunes found in an Austrian waste paper basket?

[Roehre]

Hmm... would that be the 'K.364' one that was almost certainly cobbled together by some hack in the 19th century, based on a few scribbled scraps of 'Mozartian' tunes found in an Austrian waste paper basket?

K364 is the genuine concertante for violin and viola
K320e/Anh.104 a genuine but unfinished concertante for violin, viola and 'cello
K315g/Anh.56 a likewise genuine but unfinished concerto for piano and violin
I guess you mean K297b/Anh.9, which in the presently mostly played version certainly is not completely by Mozart, but may very well be a corrupted version of a concertante of his?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hmm... would that be the 'K.364' one that was almost certainly cobbled together by some hack in the 19th century, based on a few scribbled scraps of 'Mozartian' tunes found in an Austrian waste paper basket?

I think your comments might be better directed at K297b...

(K364 is sacred.)

EDIT Ah, roehre got in quicker.

[Tony Halstead]

ooops...apologies, my mistake!
Yes of course, as you say, KV297b/anh.9.
I hope you don't mind if I correct this ( by editing my posting, but I'm not sure if I can edit this as quoted within your posting)

[MrGongGong]

What do you think of the CD Tony? (sorry if I missed your comments)

[Tony Halstead]

I like it enormously; furthermore I found it quite astonishing and disappointing that this morning on CD Review A.McG made no mention of the extraordinarily virtuosic and imaginative cadenzas.

[Bryn]

How clever of AMcG to pick the two works from the disc that I most wanted to hear. Superb playing from Eastop and the Eroicas. I do wish the latter would get on with recording more Beethoven late quartets. Their Op. 135 is a clear favourite of mine.

[Nick Armstrong]

I found it quite astonishing and disappointing that this morning on CD Review A.McG made no mention of the extraordinarily virtuosic and imaginative cadenzas.

Agreed...

[MickyD]

I approached this with expectations high but as a performance it struck me as effortful. The dexterity of the soloist was obvious but some of the sounds produced jarred and the horn dominated too much. I am glad to have heard it if only to know not to buy it. I dug out conductor Halstead's version of the concertos with the AAM and Christopher Hogwood - a much more integrated and balanced reading and, overall, an absolute delight.

I quite agree...and a much warmer recording, to my ears, too.

[MrGongGong]

I think the discussion about this CD illustrates a fundamental difference in thinking about the sounds of instruments.
Some folks see the 'development' of instruments as 'progress' while others find interest in the sounds rejected by this development.
Thinking about this in a more global context is interesting, comparing the modern metal flute to the shakuhachi for example.
Sticking keys on a flute means one can play chromatically and "in tune" but one also looses some of the ability to bend notes and have a distinctive character to individual pitches.

[doversoul1]

I think the discussion about this CD illustrates a fundamental difference in thinking about the sounds of instruments.
Some folks see the 'development' of instruments as 'progress' while others find interest in the sounds rejected by this development.
Thinking about this in a more global context is interesting, comparing the modern metal flute to the shakuhachi for example.
Sticking keys on a flute means one can play chromatically and "in tune" but one also looses some of the ability to bend notes and have a distinctive character to individual pitches.

I think some folks just didn’t care for the way in which the horn was played on this particular CD. Nothing to do with the sound of the instrument itself, even less about a global context.

[Tony Halstead]

I think some folks just didn’t care for the way in which the horn was played on this particular CD. Nothing to do with the sound of the instrument itself, even less about a global context.

I must confess I'm a bit baffled by this ( while of course acknowledging that each and every listener to the CD is entitled to their opinion and to express their opinion.)
My opinion - for what it's worth - is that 'the way in which the horn was (is) played on this particular CD' is nothing less than spectacular. It's worth buying the CD for the exploratory, awesome cadenzas alone, pushing the valveless instrument to the very outer limits of what can be achieved on a simple coiled tube.
I have certainly never ever heard such a phenomenal display of virtuosity in any other players' cadenzas.