Quiz #15 Philip Amos, COME ON DOWN!

May 8, 2008 • Weekly Quiz • 0 • Previous | Next

You’re the next winner of the OM Quiz! [cue thunderous applause]
Ah…Rod Roddy…those were the days. (relive them here and here and here).

The Answer: Richard Strauss Horn Concerto No.1 Op.11 composed in 1882/1883
The Prize: $20 Gift Certificate for Arkiv Music.
The Recording: Hermann Baumann Strauss Concertos 1&2 and Weber Concertino Op 45.

Thanks to everyone that participated this week. Come back next week to hear what Quiz #14 winner William Hughes has selected as the Quiz #16 mystery. Heres a hint: be nice to your choir friends this weekend….you might need them. Now onto a bit of information about Op.11.

This concerto and the Mozarts are standard rep for horn players. Strauss’ father Franz was the first horn player in Wagner’s orchestra. The men hated each other but Franz was widely acknowledged to be without peer as a player, a circumstance that got much of his grumpy behaviour excused. Proving that hatred is passion just as much as love is, Strauss delivered first rate performances in each of Wagner’s premieres despite his fondness for referring to the composer as Mephistopheles.

Of the two concertos Richard wrote for horn, this youthful effort is Miss Mussel’s favourite. It’s only about 15 minutes long, and much less ambitious than it’s younger cousin. In fact, the pieces make an interesting pair of bookends to Strauss’ career. The first was written in 1882/1883 when he was 18 and the second four years before his death in 1945 at the grand old age of 85.

Because of his father, Richard had real affection for the instrument and wrote well for it. The hours of practicing he heard would have most certainly made him aware, if only subconsciously, of the instrument’s strengths and colours.

The second concerto is more technically challenging, far more lushly orchestrated and reflective of the tone poems and operas that came before it. Op.11 on other hand, owes a large debt to the Beethoven and Mozart so highly revered by his father, a man who thought anything after Beethoven 7 was too modern. Although his stubbornness was likely highly irritating at the time, Franz’ unwavering commitment to the Mozart-Beethoven-Haydn trinity is rather endearing in retrospect.

In the rare instances when horn concertos are played, soloists often opt for the second concerto if they’re not playing Mozart because it is a sort of benchmark in the horn world. Everyone plays the first one in high school and university but it is only those who are “really good” that master number two.

It’s five minutes longer (an eternity for a brass player) and the phrases seem to last forever but for this bivalve’s money, the final coda section of the first concerto is the more exciting finale….or at least it was when Miss Mussel would get excited and take off on her accompanist. It starts off like a typical third movement rondo and then out of nowhere…opera! Then, it’s a thistle to the horse and it’s off like a shot in a race to the finish!