In my review of last week’s selection, Leopold Mozart’s French Horn Concerto in D (HERE), I mentioned that the four horn concertos of Wolfgang Mozart were on my list of Top 100 classical music favorites (HERE) – that’s what led me to listen to the work by Leopold Mozart in the first place.
As I researched that piece, I also found out that Wolfgang’s father Leopold wrote a concerto for two French horns, his Concerto for Two Horns and String Orchestra in E Flat (HERE). That made me wonder if any composer had written a concerto for three horns. In researching that question, I stumbled upon the Concerto for Four Horns & Orchestra by Carl Heinrich Hübler. Carl Heinrich Hübler? Who in blazes was Carl Heinrich Hübler? Turns out he was a hornist in the Dresden Royal Court orchestra from 1844 until his retirement in 1891, and he composed two concertos, a Concerto for Horn and Orchestra and a Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra. A little more info about Hübler is HERE. Well, as you can deduce from my selection this week, I found the idea of a concerto for four horns intriguing. That's why I selected Herr Hübler’s work to listen to. Now, after having heard it several times, I found the piece to be… (A drum roll please!) …delightful! The concerto is short – it runs just over twelve minutes – and it is written in three movements with little to no pause between them: Allegro maestoso; Andante; Vivace. The concerto opens with a dramatic kettle drum roll and a stately if not ceremonious fanfare by the orchestra. When the horns entered, my first thought was that this piece might end up being a little too schmaltzy. At times it sounded a bit too Dudley Doright-y (for those of you old enough to remember Dudley Doright), and at times it was as bouncy and light as a Gilbert and Sullivan overture. For a few seconds – from 2:19 to 2:22 – I even heard a theme from a John Williams’ score for “Star Wars.” The piece is so fun, though, it didn’t take long for it to win me over. The andante section is a lilting six-eight piece that segues in and out of a bit of melodrama, and the third and final movement, “Vivace,” is a fast paced rollick to the end! Take a listen to the piece when you can. I think you'll love it too!
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About a year and a half ago I posted my Top 100 favorite pieces of classical music. The list (not ranked in any way) is HERE, and all four of Wolfgang Mozart’s French horn concertos are on it (I lumped all four together as one entry).
This week I thought I’d listen to another horn concerto by Mozart, but not one by Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart – otherwise known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. No, this concerto is by his father, Leopold – Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, to be exact. I know a little bit about Leopold Mozart – and not just because I’ve seen both the live stage production and the movie “Amadeus” (many years ago I saw Ian McKellan as Salieri and Tim Curry as Wolfgang Mozart on Broadway). Shortly after seeing Peter Shaffer’s play, I also read a biography on Mozart so I learned a bit about Mozart's father Leopold. However, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard anything by Leopold Mozart, so I decided to pick something of his to listen to this week. I selected his horn concerto since all four of the other Mozart’s horn concertos landed on my Top 100 list. I found very little information about this concerto on the internets, as they say. I did see one horn concerto listed on an inventory of works by Leopold Mozart, HERE. However, that concerto is shown as having four movements: Allegro moderato; Menuet; Andante; and Allegro (HERE). The concerto I listened to on YouTube, linked HERE, seems only to have three movements: Allegro moderato; Andante; and Allegro. The YouTube video runs just over thirteen minutes (13:05), and the concerto listed on the log at AllMusic.com comes in at 13:27 – but with four movements – so I’m not so sure they’re the same piece. The concerto by Leopold Mozart was certainly pleasant enough to listen to. However, it was in no way as memorable, spirited or as lyrical as those by his son Wolfgang. To be honest, the opening strains of the work from the orchestra and the horn sound more like a practice exercise and that sets the tone for most of the work. It comes across more as a recital piece for a horn student rather than a refined and sophisticated piece in the horn repertoire. Still, as I said earlier, the work is pleasant enough so it is definitely worth a listen! : ) |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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