What an impressive recording! Hornist
Lin Jiang was born in 1986 in Shanghai, China and moved to
Australia at age 5. According to the booklet notes, he is
now one of the most sought after soloists in Australia and
has performed with several of Australia’s major orchestras. He
was awarded the Barry Tuckwell Brass Prize at the Melbourne
International Festival of Brass in 2004 and is a member of
the Australian Chamber Brass Ensemble. He has continued
to study with Tuckwell, one of the world’s greatest horn
virtuosos. His pianist on this recording, the Australian
Benjamin Martin, also deserves equal recognition and receives
shared billing on the CD — something that does not happen
often enough. However, for the most part, this is Lin Jiang’s
show. The program he has chosen demonstrates his versatility
as well as his virtuosity.
It’s
a nicely varied recital, if with a majority of twentieth-century
works. Lin captures the Romantic ardor of the Schumann staple
very well, neither underplaying it nor going over the top,
as some hornists are wont to do. This and the Poulenc, which
also receives a superb performance, are the most frequently
heard of the works on the CD. The most substantial selection,
however, is arguably Hindemith’s
Sonata for Alto Horn that
the composer also arranged for French horn. Lin and Martin
do total justice to the work. There is nothing dry or academic
in their fluent, magisterial account. The three pieces
for solo horn are also quite varied. It should be noted
that the booklet erroneously lists the final selection,
Encore,
My Good Sir, as a solo work. It is for horn and piano. However,
the preceding piece, Otto Ketting’s
Intrada is for
solo horn, though not listed as such. Maxwell Davies’
Sea
Eagle gets virtuosic treatment here, but I still find
it a difficult work to come to terms with. (See my
review of
the disc
Fantasie: Music for Horn performed
by Etienne Cutajar for more on this work.) On the other
hand, the transcription of Bach’s
Gigue from his Third
Cello Suite, is convincing and well played, even if it in
no way replaces the original. The other works on the CD
are all attractive, especially Schuller’s lyrical
Nocturne,
with its bluesy overtones, and Salonen’s
Horn Music I that
he composed at the ripe age of 18! It’s not surprising that
these two composers were also hornists. On the lighter side
is the last work on the disc,
Encore, My Good Sir,
by
Lin’s fellow student Thaddeus Huang. It is a tuneful piece
that shows off the horn well. Finally, the fun and difficult
arrangement Dennis Brain made of Marin Marais’ viola de gamba
work
Le Basque, which became a sort of signature
encore piece of Brain’s, is tossed off by Lin as if it were
a simple exercise.
In
all, a remarkable talent and a delightful disc.
Leslie Wright
Lin Jiang (horn); Benjamin Martin
(piano) 
