Saturday 16 August 2008

146. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Horn Concerto no. 4 (1786)



















Recording

Title: Horn Concertos Nos. 1-4, Quintet K.452
Performers: Dennis Brain, Philarmonia Orchestra
Director: Herbert Von Karajan
Year: 1953
Length: 16 minutes

Review

This is quite a short concerto for Horn, but truly a delightful one. A note must be made about the recording, however, Dennis Brain is renowned with good reason as the best Horn interpreter of Mozart, the recording however, in mono from 1953 makes it all feel pretty muffled. Also it isn't done in period instruments.

Still you get a great player in an historical recording with the mythical Von Karajan. The piece is great revealing a humorous side to the composition, particularly in the third movement.

It isn't as amazing as the piano concertos, but then what is? But this recording is a very good value piece of historical music-making by some of the greatest names in classical music in the mid 20th century and if only for that reason, worth listening to.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia


From Wikipedia:

The manuscript was written with multicolored inks, perhaps in a jocular attempt to rattle the intended performer (Leitgeb).

Second and third movement, the kid is quite good:

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