This
is a feast in terms of both the music and the performances,
and I must waste no time in strongly recommending the
purchase of this set. It contains playing of astonishing
musicianship in both established masterworks and some
fascinating rarities. There are interesting notes by
Stephen Pettit from which I derive the biographical information
in this review and which set the various recordings in
the context of Dennis Brain’s career.
The
first disc includes several of his earliest solo recordings.
He had been playing since he was a teenager with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra where his father, Aubrey Brain,
was principal horn. He was in the RAF Band during the
war but his first solo recording was made in 1943 when
he was 22. This is the first item here – Mozart’s Fourth
Horn Concerto - and it may be something of a surprise
if you have known and loved his later recording (also
included here). Putting it simply, whereas this early
recording is certainly adequate technically and is always
musical in its approach, it lacks the individuality and
subtlety of the later performance. Partly this may be
a result of what can only be described as a very rough
accompaniment by the Hallé Orchestra of that time. His
next recording – the Beethoven Sonata with Denis Matthews
and only some seven months later – was much more musically
confident and interesting to the listener, and from then
on it was success after success for this recordings in
musical terms. The earlier versions of the Second Mozart
Concerto with the Philharmonia and Walter Susskind and
of the First Richard Strauss Concerto with the same orchestra
and Alceo Galliera are not significantly inferior to
the later and better known versions. This set would indeed
be worth having at the kind of prices at which it has
been advertised just for the latter, but in fact they
are by no means the main interest here.
I
would suggest that this lies in the chamber works, in
particular the Mozart Piano and Wind Quintet with Colin
Horsley as a superbly individual pianist, the Lennox
Berkeley Trio, again with Colin Horsley, and the Gordon
Jacob Sextet. Why the latter is not frequently performed
with the Poulenc Sextet is a mystery. It is an immediately
impressive piece which reveals more at each hearing.
For me it is the highlight of the set, although the Hindemith
Concerto conducted by the composer runs it close.
As
well as all these wonderful and important works there
are also a variety of short works and curiosities. The
latter include an unaccompanied performance of Siegfried’s
horn call and part of Leopold Mozart’s Concerto for hosepipe,
played at one of the Hoffnung concerts. Interesting to
hear once, and they only take up a fraction of the contents
of the discs. There are several short works for wind
alone, to which I have found myself returning over and
over again out of pleasure at the sheer musicianship
displayed, and examples of his work as a member of the
Philharmonia Orchestra. Cantelli’s delightfully spontaneous
sounding performance of Mozart’s Musical Joke thoroughly
deserves its place as does the first movement of Haydn’s
Hornsignal Symphony – what a pity that the rest was not
recorded at that time.
Inevitably
none of these recordings is under 51 years old as Dennis
Brain died in a car crash in September 1957, but the
sound is generally good apart from the first recording
of the Mozart Fourth Concerto which is boxy and somewhat
coarse. I have listened repeatedly with increasing pleasure
to this set which is irresistible for its sheer musical
pleasure.
John Sheppard
Details
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
1. Horn Concerto No. 1 in D K412 [8:23]
2,3.
Horn
Concerto No. 2 in E flat K417 [2 versions – 13:00;
13:48]
4.
Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat K447 [15:45];
(5, 6)
5,6.
Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat K495 [2 versions – 16:49;
16:02]
7.
Quintet for piano and wind in E flat
K452 [23:00]
8.
Eine Musikalischer Spass K522 [19:23];
(9)
9.
Divertimento in B flat K270 (arr. Anthony Baines)
[8:52]; (10)
10.
Divertimento in E flat K289 (Minuet
and
Adagio only) [5:52]
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949) (11, 12)
11,12.
Horn Concerto
No. 1 in Eb [2 versions – 14:56; 15:17]
13.
Horn
Concerto No. 2 in E flat [18:16]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
14.
Horn Sonata in F Op 7 [14:25]
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
15.
Siegfried’s
Horn Call [1:25]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
16.
Adagio and Allegro in A flat Op 70 [8:15]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
17.
Nocturne from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Op 61 [6:58]
Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
18. Horn Concerto [14:56]
Lennox BERKELEY (1903-1989)
19.
Trio for violin, horn and piano [26:22]
Carl Ditters von DITTERSDORF (1739-1799)
20.
Partita in D (Minuet and Trio only) [2:46]
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
21.
Symphony No. 31 in D (“Hornsignal”) (first movement
only) [3:40]
Jacques IBERT (1890-1962)
22. Trois Pièces Brèves
[7:05]
Gordon JACOB (1895-1984)
23.
Sextet for wind [20:45]
Paul DUKAS (1865-1935)
24.
Villanelle [6:10]
Leopold MOZART (1719-1787)
25.
Concerto for hosepipe and strings (Finale only) [1:41]
Performers
Dennis Brain (horn & hosepipe) (1-25)
Hallé Orchestra
(3): Philharmonia Orchestra (1-4,6,8,12,13,17,18):
London Baroque Ensemble ((20); Unnamed Orchestra
(21); Morley College Symphony Orchestra (25)
Sir Malcolm Sargent (conductor)
(3): Lawrence Turner (conductor) (3): Alceo Galliera (conductor) (11); Paul Kletzki
(conductor) (17); Herbert von Karajan (conductor) (1,2,4,6); Wolfgang Sawallisch
(conductor) (12,13); Paul Hindemith (conductor) (18); Guido Cantelli (conductor)
(8); Karl Haas (conductor) (20); Sir Jack Westrup (conductor) (21); Norman del
Mar (conductor) (25)
Denis Matthews (piano) (14); Gerald Moore (piano) (16,24);
Colin Horsley (piano) (7,19); Dennis Brain Ensemble (7,9,10,22,23); Manoug Parikian
(violin) (19)