Unsung Romantic Horn Music

[Mark Thomas]

There are Raff's lovely Two Romances for Horn & Piano op.182, which can be downloaded from IMSLP.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Unfortunately, only No. 1 is available on IMSLP. It is indeed very lovely. I'd like to see No. 2.

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

One of my first treasures (bought some ten years ago - it came with me to college, actually) was this disc: http://www.answers.com/topic/flemish-romantic-horn-concertos
Every work a gem of some sort - my personal favorite is the Robert Herberigs which opens the disc, and the first movement of the Meulemans.  Though the Van Eechaute is nice, too.

[Mark Thomas]

Both the Raff pieces used to be at IMSLP, I'm sure. I wonder what happened to the second one?

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Were you able to download both from the page? The page description has changed to reflect that only one is there whereas earlier it claimed (by omission) that both were, but I don't know that both actually were there earlier...

[Mark Thomas]

I guess that IMSLP has only ever had No.1, Eric, as that's all I have too, I now find. Sorry to mislead everyone. I'm getting older...

[Lionel Harrsion]

I'm getting older...

As George Burns said, "That's better than the alternative!"

[eschiss1]

Agreed.
And if one of us finds a public-domain copy of no.2- well, as the expression goes, "looking out for no.2", or something... I mean, will happily upload it.

[nigelkeay]

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.)

I'm at present working on a recording of this work in its original version (Serenade in F-minor Op.73) for the group Trio Art Dente; it's going onto a CD of works for this combination and will be ready by October, but I understand it will have a limited distribution.

[Paul Barasi]

Saint-Saëns has previously been mentioned earlier in this post but not the work that cries "Horn" to me: the Romance in F op 36 for ... Cello!

The Horn version sounds typical S-S: produced with the effortless ease of a carefree shrug of the shoulders by a composer who can orchestrate beautifully on auto-pilot while always having a lovely melody to hand. The music takes the stage as a brief interlude, although framed by nothing at all. It is certainly lightweight but a completely fashioned and finished product (and to think they say he's 'second-rate'!). And just maybe in this work we can let our imaginations and emotions take wing and allow the name Romance to be taken literally. For S-S shows off the boisterous horn as also being a tranquil and tender instrument, as it drifts in the morning mist at the helm of a boat, calling out hauntingly, at first softly with longing caresses, and then with mounting passion in its eagerness to catch and embrace the answering orchestra of its heart's desire.

But I am not on the horns of a dilemma about which instrument delivers best. if this isn't actually an authentic horn composition then I think that it has most fittingly been adopted into the family.  And if I ever knew how this work came to switch between Cello and Horn, and whether it was composed intentionally for both instruments or if not which came first, then I have long since forgotten. Nor do I know how rare among the composers is this option of being able to select alternate solo instruments but that is something I believe is worth finding out.  Meanwhile, I can simply sit back and enjoy Radovan Vlatkovic playing with Ensemble Orchestral de Paris under Kantorow in 1995 on EMI's CD: 724355558725.

[TerraEpon]

It's been a while since I looked at the Thematic Catalog, but I'm pretty sure the horn and orchestra (or I should say, horn, woodwinds, and strings) version is the original.

[nigelkeay]

I've just tracked down an existing recording of the Robert Kahn Serenade Op.73 on the Polymnie label.

[JimL]

Doesn't Saint-Saëns compose a Morceau de Concert for horn and orchestra as well?

[Alan Howe]

Doesn't Saint-Saëns compose...?

No, he's decomposing at the moment...

[Mark Thomas]

Ouch!