Before Mozart – Early Horn Concertos

BIS

Well known for his equivocal approach to such repertoire, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s virtuoso principal horn, Alec Frank-gemmill, has now released a compendium of pre-mozart works with the Swedish Chamber orchestra under Nicholas Mcgegan. Christoph Förster’s a Concerto in E flat, written around 1740, is a blistering gem, its outer movement ripe and radiant, its central adagio soothingly lyrical. Frank-gemmill’s playing is sunny, effortless and exhilarating. Telemann’s brief Concerto in D is elegant if less adventurous; Johann Baptist George Neruda’s E flat Concerto is beautifully crafted with soaring melodic sequences. Leopold Mozart’s Sinfonia da Camera is presented as a charming chamber work combining horn with solo strings and continuo. As with all these performances, effortless virtuosity makes it all sound so easy and so compellingly listenable.