Request: repertoire for English Horn (cor anglais)

[Ilja]

Hi all,

At last I appear to have saved up enough money to buy an English Horn (or alto oboe). I've wanted to play one for years, but the fact that it is a ludicrously expensive instrument kept me from it. However, thanks to some favourable economics (for me personally if not for the remainder of the planet) it now seems as though I might fullfil my wish.

However, the literature for the music appears - using understatement - to be quite sparse. Does any of you know about concertante or chamber works that prominently features the English horn? I'm not claiming to be up to Paganini-esque levels within a week, but I'd like to look over some material if it's there.

[albion]

Hi, there are a few things listed here which might be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor_anglais_%28English_horn%29#Repertoire

[Alan Howe]

Hi Ilja - as Albion implies in his link, we call the instrument the 'cor anglais'.

[black]

Hi Ilja,
Here you'll find an extensive list of chamber music in which the cor anglais plays a more or less prominent role.
In addition to this list I'd like to mention the Trio op 49 nr 1 for oboe, cor anglais & clarinet by Sigfrid Karg-Elert, a nice piece of music and very well playable.
Furthermore there are some works for larger wind ensembles, like the Nonet by Parry and the Dixtuor by Enescu which make use of the cor anglais.
And if you are really keen on discovering forgotten music you might try some works by Heinrich Molbe who seem to have had a particular interest in the cor anglais. You'll find them on the site of IMSLP.
Have fun!
Black

[John Hudock]

The contemporary Latvian composer, Peteris Vasks, has a lovely concerto for cor anglais and orchestra.

[Marcus]

Hello Ilja,
Cor Anglais concertos/concertinos were written by Donizetti,Rossini,Wolf-Ferrari, Honneger, Rorem amongst others.
Yvon & Hindemith have written Sonatas, but there are many 20th century examples involving the Cor Anglais in chamber ensembles, and a few from the 19th century etc. A quick check of the CD catalogues of Presto, MDT, JPC, Archiv,H B Direct,Records International will reveal plenty of works to chose from. I wish you luck with a beautiful but difficult instrument. I hope we see your name up in lights one day.
Marcus

[TerraEpon]

Rossini didn't write any English Horn concerti, unless it's something pretty recently discovered.
He DID write a piece for Flute, Oboe, English Horn, and String Quartet, but that's the only thing I have listed from him with with that instrument outside of any orchestral uses (William Tell overture and such).

[Marcus]

Hello TerraEpon,
The Tactus label has a Cd of some of Rossini's works which includes a Concertino for English Horn. It sounds to me like the work you describe, or even a transcription of some other work. I do not own the CD, otherwise I could refer to the booklet for more information, but I merely pointed out to Ilja the availabilty of some works which might be of interest to him.
Marcus.

[Ilja]

Hi all, thanks for the replies (and yes, I should've found out the Wikipedia one myself). Now, there's just the teensy matter of picking up the instrument itself...