DiscountDelight - Mozart: Horn Concertos Nos. 1-4
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List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $7.26
Your Save: $ 4.72 ( 39% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Angel Records
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724356695023
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Angel Records
Manufacturer: Angel Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Angel Records
Release Date: 1999-01-12
Studio: Angel Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: I Wish Dennis Brain Had Been Born So That His Performing Powers Peaked in 1995
Comment: I purchased The LP in 1953 and proceeded to 'wear it out.' No, I have not yet thrown it out.
However, I have had the good fortune to find myself a resident of the San Francisco Peninsula since 1970 and, in time, have had the privilege to make the acquaintance of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, who perform one of each of their annual subscription concert series locally here in Palo Alto.
In 1992 they recorded the Horn Concertos with Lowell Greer performing them on the natural (valveless) horn, the instrument which was in use at the time Mozart composed them. Given the temperamental nature of the the instrument, the recording is doubtless a composite of many 'takes.' It is also a breathtaking performance and is now my 'standard.' See:
[...]
Take a moment to listen to some of the available tracks.
Form your own opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Master Performs a Master
Comment: I'm not much of a classical music reviewer. I've been exposed to a lot of music, but I tend to stick to favorite performances, so I don't have the depth needed to really be authoritative. Except perhaps for oboe, and that's because I grew up listening to John De Lancie and Marcel Tabuteau - and once you hear really good, you know what's what. This album is a similar case. Dennis Brain wasn't a 'good' French horn player, he was probably the best that there ever was or will be.
I've heard a lot of performance horn players. All you have to do to see what I mean is to wander through this website and pick off performances of the first movement of Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat and you will discover that Brain never blurbles a note, and every attack in the Allegro Maestoso is pinpoint. He is technically and tonally perfect and couples that with a superb musical sensibility. It was one of the great musical tragedies that he died at the age of 36.
Something to keep in mind is that when Mozart wrote these works for his good friend (and cheesemonger) Joseph Leutgeb, the French horn was a very limited instrument. Many of the notes were reached by stopping the bell to some degree, which affected volume and intonation. Mozart wrote to take advantage of Leutgeb's expertise at this, and Dennis Brain chooses to maintain this effect rather than just play his modern instrument with no thought to the past.
These compositions cover a fair range of time. Number 2(K.417) is really the earliest (1783). And the incomplete No. 1 (K.412) is really the last (1791). The best though, in both my mind and Mozart's is the Quintet in E flat for piano & wind. Mozart was a master in using instrument groupings in novel and powerful fashion and this is no exception.
EMI has remastered this CD over their previous release, which enhances clarity, and makes it easier to hear Dennis Brain's considerable finesse. I own their first release and the difference in clarity makes it worth finding this edition. But even the duller production of the 1997 is enjoyable. It you want a good selection of Dennis Brain's work on one CD this is an excellent buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mozart: Horn Concert
Comment: Great recordings of the century, and that is what it is.
Herbart von Karajan conducting, and Dennis Brain on horn tells it all; a wonderful rich music experience are waiting for you.
In my ears its probably one of the best recordings ever made of the horn concert. And even though its from the mid 50`s it comes in a wonderful remastered CD.
The CD comes with a very good booklet in English; telling the story behind the record.
I highly recommend this album
Customer Rating:
Summary: The fate came for him!
Comment: The early death of Dennis Brain added another fatal victim to that decade. The fifties was possibly the most tragic decade in the Century. William Kapell in 1953, Guido Cantelli in 1956, Michael Rabin in 1958 and Dennis Brain's sudden disappearance marked the end of the finest horn in years. His Mozart performances have not rivals and his readings of Hindemith and Strauss Horn Concerts have not been beaten to date. Clarity, musicality, phrasing, elegance and refinement in the highest expression constituted his personal trademark.
Nobody did it better!
In memoriam!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Truly "Know Brain" Purchase
Comment: EMI has done an expert job of transferring these classic 1953 mono performances with Dennis Brain in Mozart's 4 Horn Concertos. These readings certainly sound better here than on my weathered Angel LP. They are the prize of this set. The Philharmonia plays beautifully, even if Karajan's conducting falls a tad short of capturing all the wit in these scores. I have assigned just 4 stars here only because:
1. Brain's earlier recordings of #2 (with the Philharmonia under Walter Susskind) and #4 (with the Halle Orchestra, no conductor's name specified) were even more brilliant and stylish than what is heard here. Those performances are on a Pearl CD, which I have not heard (mine are on the original 10-inch Columbia LP).
2. My favorite Horn Concerto is #2: its delightful hunting horn calls in the last mvt. are some of the happiest music Mozart ever wrote. To my taste, the greatest-ever recording of #2 is Brain's 1953 account with Hans Rosbaud and the South-West German Symphony. In that reading, all the witty repartee between the soloist and orchestra is realized to perfection (Rosbaud would have been a far better choice for this complete EMI set than Karajan, who tends to smooth out the orchestral playing in a manner better-suited to Bruckner). That superlative #2 is available elsewhere on the internet in a 2-disc Rosbaud set for $10 on the private label Disco Archivia. Among the set's other contents: a brilliant live account of Mahler's 6th Symphony.
3. This 1954 recording of Mozart's Quintet for Piano & Winds features Brain on horn, his brother Leonard on oboe, clarinetist Stephen Walters, the great Cecil James on bassoon, and pianist Colin Horsley. Frankly, except for James, Brain's playing here is head and shoulders above that of his collaborators (Horsley's is utterly anonymous). One year earlier Brain recorded a SUPERB account with Walter Gieseking (one of that great Mozartean's finest performances), James again on bassoon, plus the masterly Philharmonia principals Sidney Sutcliffe (oboe) and Bernard Walton (clarinet). That is available on a Testament CD (see my review), which also contains a simply WONDERFUL reading of Beethoven's work for identical forces, played by Brain and the same partners. An indispensable CD!
While there are other fine integral sets of the 4 Horn Concertos (e.g., James Stagliano and the Zimbler Sinfonietta on a long-ago Boston LP), this EMI recording is simply the ONE to have. If you'll forgive the expression, owning this EMI CD is truly a "know Brain" purchase.
Highly recommended.
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