A Horn Player's Guide to Great Music
Horn recordings that I heartily recommend.
- Hermann Baumann's recordings of the standard horn repertoire: concertos by Mozart, R. Strauss, Weber, Gliere, Telemann, etc. Unfortunately, most of Baumann's recordings have gone out of print, but they have recently started re-releasing some of them, so look around.
- Dennis Brain's recording of the Mozart horn concertos, for its style and musicality. I don't like Brain's sound, though. So sue me.
- John Cerminaro's recording of the Mozart concertos. Now there's a nice sound. Also, check out Cerminaro's Screamers: Difficult Works for Horn. It's really kind of sick.
- The American Horn Quartet. This is an absolutely fantastic group of performers, and you should just snap up every CD of theirs that you can get your hands on. I especially recommend The Well-Tempered Horn, which features Bach fugues and the like, and Concerto Grosso, which includes Robert Schumann's Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra. I used to recommend a recording of the Konzertstück by the Berlin Philharmonic Horn Section, but the AHQ blows them completely out of the water. It's just a phenomenal performance of a sick, sick piece of music. (Schumann, of course, was not wired up correctly.) Visit the AHQ's website for info on where to get their CDs.
- The London Horn Sound. Well, I don't particularly care for their sound per se, but this is nonetheless a fun CD, with a wide variety of music for anywhere from 8 to 32 horns (plus a few Wagner tubas on some of the tracks).
- Vienna Horns. This is my new favorite CD. It's an eclectic collection of music performed on Wienerhorns (12 of them), including movie music, works by Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Copland, and a truly insane arrangement of the Konzertstück for 4 horns and 8 horns (that is, 4 solo horns, plus 8 horns covering what would normally be the orchestra parts). You just can't beat that Wienerhorn sound. This is what horns are supposed to sound like.
Two of my favorite horn CDs, which I have long hailed on this page, are to the best of my knowledge no longer in print. If anyone knows a source for either of them, I'd like to know.
- St. Hubert's Mass and Other Festive Hunting Music, the Folkwang Horn Ensemble, Hermann Baumann, conductor and soloist. St. Hubert is arranged for a huge ensemble of valved horns, natural horns, and organ.
- Es blies ein Jäger wohl in sein Horn. Hunts and fanfares performed by the Bayreuth Festival Horns.