Unsung Romantic Horn Music

[Peter1953]

There is quite a lot of music for horn and orchestra and chamber music with horn in the Classical era. What happened in the Romantic era? Was the horn in disgrace? I have the impression that music with solo horn is rather scarce.

Dietrich wrote his Introduction and Romance for Horn and Orchestra, op. 27, Glazunov a Rêverie for Horn and Orchestra in D flat major, op. 24 and Ries composed a Concerto for Two Horns and Orchestra in E flat major, WoO.19.
Von Henselt wrote a Duo for Piano and Horn in B minor, op. 14 (although I'm not sure whether it was originally meant for horn), Von Herzogenberg a Trio for Piano, Oboe and Horn in D major, op. 61, Jenner composed a Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Horn in E flat major and Rheinberger a Sonata for Piano and Horn in E flat major, op. 178. Of course there are some quartets, quintets and perhaps sextets featuring a horn.

Do members know other examples of music for horn and orchestra and duos or trios with a horn?

[Arbuckle]

Franz Joseph Strauss (26 February 1822 – 31 May 1905), father of Richard wrote at least one horn concerto in 1865.
Also, check wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_for_horn#Romantic

[eschiss1]

Czerny's first piano trio is actually a horn/violin/piano trio that could be alternatively played as a "standard" piano trio, I believe.

The list of 223 pieces in http://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:Romantic&intersect=Scores_featuring_the_horn written during the Romantic era and in some sense "featuring the horn" probably needs much sifting but may be worth a look all the same... it includes an early Tchaikovsky Adagio for 4 horns for example... (ok, a composition exercise- but still- hrm! )

[JimL]

Don't forget about the Schumann Konzertstück for 4 Horns and Orchestra.  I never tire of it!

[eschiss1]

The Speil ballade for cornet, among those works, found in the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, seems (to my non-performer's eye) worth a look-over. What I can gather of his biography is interesting...
The Saint-Saens Concert-piece - which I remember fondly because a horn-playing family member used to practice it - is not the very most sung of his works (neither is Weber's concertante work for the horn, opus 45, memory serves) and for myself I think well of both- though again for myself best of these is the Schumann (though there are fortunately a number of very good horn works, and if embarrassingly for me the first time I saw the Brahms horn trio mentioned (in a concert advertisement at Interlochen, when I was working there) I thought it was a trio of horns- later I learned there are quite a few such pieces, by Reicha for instance- it is deservedly "sung" and singing, too (and therefore tangential to the thread- though it probably inspired a number of responses, besides the Ligeti Hommage à Brahms obviously and a few almost definitely- I think those by Jenner and Herzogenberg, almost definitely...)
There's also a few horn and strings quintets besides those by Mozart and Reicha - a late-Romantic one by Emil Kreuz, for instance (and the horn, piano and strings one by Felix Draeseke.) Robert Kahn wrote a serenade for oboe, horn and piano that was published in 1923 (so I haven't seen it - copyrights stuffs) but I suspect is good... (recorded on Chandos in 2002 in one of its alternate forms, with viola for horn.)

[TerraEpon]

I actually just today got this utterly wonderful and fantastic disc of late romantic French works for horn and orchestra (some of them, supposedly, written for the natural horn which he plays on):
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=211777

Seriously, this disc is really enjoyable, though I guess the performance of the Saint-Saens Morceau de Concert (not unsung....hell probably the most sung piece of the romantic era for horn...despite what the post above said. That or the Weber) could have been am bit better.

[Peter1953]

Thanks for your posts, and Arbuckle and Eric for the links.

How can we live without internet? We simply cannot. However, sometimes I think that there are not so many new discoveries to make for so much has been already researched and recorded by others. So I'm not going to start a similar topic on the flute... (also because, I'm sorry to admit, I don't like the flute that much).

BTW, for me the most wonderful music ever written for solo horn are the Mozart concertos. By far. A constant flow of gorgeous and very memorable themes. Unsung? For what I've heard so far it's Dietrich's piece.

[alberto]

Apart from the extremely long list on Wikipedia, I wish to indicate a few works (recorded - not very often- and sometimes even performed) which  I do like:
-Chabrier Larghetto for horn and orch. (there is a DG recording: R.Janezic, Gardiner, VPO)
-Ethel Smyth Concerto for violin, horn and orch. (Chandos; Trubadisc - here version with piano)
-Gliére Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, 1951n but very traditional (recorded by Baumann/Masur, Gewandhaus)
-Schoeck Concerto for Horn and Strings (Bruno Schneider on CPO)
-Dukas Villanelle

[black]

In chamber music there are quite a few romantic - more or less unsung - works in which the horn plays a prominent role, often in combination with the clarinet, for instance
- Reinecke: Trio in B flat major Op. 274 (clarinet, horn & piano)
- Kahn: Quintet Op. 54 (clarinet, horn, violin, cello & piano)
- Fibich: Quintet Op. 42 (same combination)
- von Baussnern: Quintet (1905) (ditto)
- Dunhill: Quintet Op. 3
- von Dohnanyi: Sextet Op. 37 (clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello & piano)
- John Ireland: Sextet (1898) (clarinet, horn, string quartet)
Holbrooke and Tovey composed trio's for the same combination as Brahms's famous Horn Trio Op. 40
Reinecke's Op.188 has the same combination as Herzogenberg's Op. 61

[Rainolf]

Not to forget Draeseke's Adagio op. 31 and Romanze op. 32 for Horn and Piano. His Quintet for Piano, String trio and Horn op. 48 is surely one of his best chamber music pieces, but the Horn player hasn't so much to do here.

[Alan Howe]

You are right about the role of the horn in Draeseke's Op.48 - it's more to do with contributing to the overall texture of the piece than having a prominent, quasi-solo part. It's an absolute and utter masterpiece, of course.

[TerraEpon]

Of course the Gliere isn't particularly unsung either, it's probably his third most well known piece....

And of course I forgot about Strauss #1 in most above but I tend to think of him as 20th century despite writing so much in 1880s and 90s.

The Dukas  (not all that romantic) and Chabrier are reletively popular too.

[Peter1953]

Not Romantic, but Classical. Never heard a more sparkling third movement of a horn concerto (except those by Mozart) than from the very, very unsung Belgian composer Jean-Engelbert Pauwels (1786-1804). Listen to track 4 to get an idea.
Not mentioned in the Wikipedia list. What a pure listening pleasure if you enjoy the genre as I do.

[eschiss1]

Brief bio for him here and in some other places, anyway.

[eschiss1]

Other works:
Getting a little lateish but still Romantic, there's Sinigaglia's pieces for horn and piano (published 1905,  his op.28).
Early in the period (and maybe more Classical) Cipriani Potter wrote a sonata di Bravura (his opus 13, published in the 1820s apparently) for horn (or bassoon) and piano.
IMSLP has a sonata (op.7) published around 1890 by Breitkopf by Hermann Eichborn (1847-1918) for horn (or cello) and piano.
Though not yet so recorded I think, Czerny's first piano trio was written, not for piano trio usually-composed, but for horn, violin and piano with again an alternate cello part for the horn (as with Brahms' trio op.40 years later- which has been played and recorded as a common-garden trio too )
Mayseder wrote a few horn works perhaps around the 1820s including a trio for horn, harp and violin, and some others.