John EricsonMy annual horn recital will occur on Sunday, October 20, 2013, 5:00, Katzin Concert Hall at the Arizona State University School of Music, assisted by Yi-Wan Liao, piano, and members of the Arizona State University Horn Studio. Notes on the program are below. I welcome any reader in the area to attend, it will be an enjoyable recital.
Fanfare: Salute to Dennis Brain for solo horn and horn ensemble by Peter Maxwell Davies
British hornist Dennis Brain is the iconic horn soloist of the 20th century. By far the leading horn soloist of his generation, his untimely death in a car crash at age 36 in 1957 rocked the musical world. This fanfare was composed in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of his death and contains six short, connected movements with textures that vary between solo horn, four horns, and a larger horn ensemble.
Concertino Op. 45 No. 5 by Lars-Erik Larsson
Next on the program is the first of two short concertos. The Larsson Concertino is a standard work performed on numerous student recitals, but due to a quirk of fate it is a work that I have not performed in public. Published in 1957, the three short movements are beautifully crafted for horn.
Brief Intermission
Concerto K.V. 412/421 by W. A. Mozart (performed on natural horn)
To open the second half is a familiar work but with several twists. This work is widely known as the Mozart Horn Concerto No. 1. However, in spite of manuscript parts existing in Mozart’s hand, there is strong evidence to suggest that Mozart did not compose this work at all, but rather it is a reworking of a solo composed by his friend, the horn soloist Ignaz Leutgeb. Further complicating the picture, the manuscript of the standard version of the second (of only two) movements is in the hand of his composition pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and an alternate manuscript version, heard today, was later discovered in the hand of Mozart. Curiously, that version also contains a running commentary by Mozart aimed at the soloist Leutgeb, who was then 59 years old and perhaps struggling a bit. When you listen to the second movement, see if you can make these comments fit the music. (Full comments will be in the program notes, but for some flavor, this is how it ends: “you come to torture me the fourth thanks God the last time now … finish NOW, I beg you! … oh, confound it! … again bravura … brave … oh, sheeps bleating … finished? … Heaven’s thank! Basta, basta!”)
Songs of a Wayfarer by Gustav Mahler, trans. Eric Carlson
Finally, the program closes with an arrangement of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Mahler. This work is one I have long wanted to perform due to the use of themes from this song cycle in his Symphony No. 1, a favorite work of horn players.