A Noble & Melancholy Instrument

Album review

Horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill and pianist Alasdair Beatson have decided to record this album of music for horn and piano, written over a Century and a half between the beginning of the 19th up to the middle of the 20th, on instruments built during the periods of their respective works. Beethoven’s Sonata, written in 1800, will be heard on a « cor d’orchestre », i.e. an orchestral horn, in this case a natural horn with no valves, hence some chromaticisms that sound quite nasal, the effect of tighter lips and the hand being squeezed into the bell in order to generate some notes out of the natural range of the instrument ; the keyboard is a Viennese fortepiano built 1815. Schumann and Strauss (Franz Josef, not Richard or Johann), for their pieces written in the 50s, are entitled to a Viennese valve horn of that same period and a fortepiano built in 1847. Rossini and Saint-Saëns are played of a 1823 natural horn of French built, known as « cor solo », i.e. a more sophisticated natural horn, and a Blüthner of 1867. Dukas, Vinter and Glazunov are played on a Belgian valve horn of the early 20th Century and a 1898 Bechstein. It should be kept in mind that, in particular for horn, composers would bow to whatever was possible and not possible in their time, so that the music is written accordingly ; more specifically, the natural horn offers an astonishing tone range, between natural notes belonging to the natural scale, and chromatic notes obtained by artificial means. Alec Frank-Gemmill is the first solo horn at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Often invited as a guest principal horn, he has frequently appeared with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He also appears regularly as part of period instrument ensembles, and he has long championed the solo repertoire of the baroque era and the use of instruments from the 19th century.. © SM/Qobuz