With his successful career and, above all, engagement with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Radek Baborák has followed the path taken by the Czech horn players who back in the second half of the 18th century gained fame in distinguished chapels in the territoiry of today's Germany. As the repertoire of this recording proves, besides the most renowned of them, Giovanni Punto, other Czech composers too had a penchant for creating music for the natural horn. The reason for the growing popularity of this instrument and its frequent application not only in orchestral and chamber music but also in solo parts was the technical improvement and, consequently, greater interpretational possibilitiesand higher attractiveness of sound.

This CD from EMI features Dennis Brain, in my opinion the greatest horn player who ever lived. In his tragically brief life Brain recorded the definitive versions of numerous works, and although his Mozart horn concertos are my favorites, his treatment of Strauss is a close runner up. Despite these recordings being from the mid-1950s, the musicianship of Brain still makes these the best available. While I like Strauss, I find Hindemith a bit derivative and monotonous, although with Brain's treatment still a delight.

Jean-François Madeuf and Pierre-Yves Madeuf are two of the leading exponents of the historically informed performance practice as applied to wind instruments. On natural horn or natural trumpet they can be found in many of Europe’s main early music ensembles and orchestras. On this new Accent CD, they team up with Sigiswald Kuijken’s exquisite La Petite Bande to perform a set of Georg Philipp Telemann concertos as they have never been heard before on record: using natural trumpets and horns, and bringing the pieces back to their original chamber music context.

Over the years Ifor James (1931-2004) has played with numerous orchestras and many famous composers have written and dedicated works to him. He was also one of the world’s most successful teachers, having put over 100 people into the profession. On this CD he plays horn sonatas together with Jennifer Partridge. Beethoven’s horn sonata especially stands out from the programme, since it’s the only sonata that Beethoven wrote for a wind instrument.

This performance of the Horn Trio Op 40 is my favorite of the moment. It is so lively and engaging that I had to give it my full attention on the first hearing; no multitasking while these musicians are playing. The trio and the Serenade Op 11 - the Serenade is the original nonet version - are emotionally charged, gritty (but not ugly at all) tangy and deeply satisfying. Well balanced recording and great sound.

German Pagan Black Metallers HORN will release a new album entitled ‘Mohngang’ on May 15, 2020 via Iron Bonehead Productions

Markus Maskuniittys debut recording together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra together with its chief conductor Sakari Oramo, showcases four concertante works for horn and orchestra covering a period of one hundred years (from 1849 to 1951). Robert Schumann described the horn as the soul of the orchestra and he had a profound affinity with the instrument. The most substantial of Schumanns works featuring the horn is the Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, Op. 86. Schumann considered the work as one of his best achievements as a composer. During 1849, Schumann wrote a total of three works featuring the valve horn.

Curzon record is of high quality, and it is good to have this example of his superlative artistry in the music of Mozart, a composer who was particularly close to his heart. Indeed, Curzon's stylistic perfection in Mozart was formed at a time when this composer was often much less well served than he is now. Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet were old friends, and in these versions there is clearly a close rapport between all four players, though [Norbert] Brainin's distinctive, slowish, wide vibrato was already very noticeable in September 1952, when the recordings were made, and seems out of style in Mozart. In every other respect these are superlative, beautifully poised performances.

This double CD offers six concertos for two horns, as well as one concerto for three horns and a sextet for two horns and string quartet, all dating from the late eighteenth century. Brothers Zdenek and Bedrich Tylsar, Czech horn players with impressive solo, orchestral, and academic credentials, play with assurance and musical sensitivity. The brothers' playing is characteristic of Eastern European hornists – a relatively small and slightly covered, but focused tone. They use modern double valve horns, which avoid the intonational vagaries of the valveless Waldhorns for which these works were written, and which greatly increase the facility with which these pieces can be played.

The Glière is the most ambitious work here, running for nearly 23 minutes, almost a record length for a horn concerto. It is very florid and romantic—its unlikely model is Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, to which it comes nearest in the finale which is a lively Russian dance. Although some of the material is ingenuous, notably the march rhythm of the first movement, it is quite a jolly piece and has much in common with the Richard Strauss concertos. Otherwise the best known work is the Dukas Villanelle which Dennis Brain liked to play, and which is attractively diverse in mood and style, although essentially a miniature.

The case for performing Mozart's horn music authentically on its original natural (valveless) horn is a bit tougher than for music in other genres; it's hard to imagine that Mozart or his audiences wouldn't have preferred the smooth scale of the modern horn to the reedy, clarinet-like tone that emerges on chromatic notes even on a fine recording like this one. Yet the four concertos, two of them incomplete or incompletely transmitted, and the Horn Quintet in E flat major, K. 407, have been recorded often enough on natural horns.