Concerto for horn, string orchestra & timpani, Op. 150
Horn Concerto, Op. 58
Hunter's Moon, for horn & piano
British horn virtuoso David Pyatt performs five little-known horn concertos by his countrymen and -women on this effort. The composers are of approximately the same generation, all born around the turn of the twentieth century, and four of the pieces (excluding Ruth Gipps' 1969 concerto) were written between 1942 and 1957, during the height of Dennis Brain's remarkable career. Three of those concertos were specifically written for Brain, and he played all four of them at one time or another. The concertos by Gordon Jacob ...
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British horn virtuoso David Pyatt performs five little-known horn concertos by his countrymen and -women on this effort. The composers are of approximately the same generation, all born around the turn of the twentieth century, and four of the pieces (excluding Ruth Gipps' 1969 concerto) were written between 1942 and 1957, during the height of Dennis Brain's remarkable career. Three of those concertos were specifically written for Brain, and he played all four of them at one time or another. The concertos by Gordon Jacob and Malcolm Arnold, by far the best-known composers represented here, are probably the least memorable. They are well crafted and pleasantly lyrical, but rarely rise to the level of eloquence, or to the blood-stirring bravura for which the horn is such a natural vehicle. York Bowen's Straussian concerto has a genuinely Romantic impetuosity that makes it highly attractive, and he makes full use of the horn's broad expressive capabilities. Gipps' concerto is colorfully orchestrated and...
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