Contributed by Esa Tapani, Professor, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main

By “getting international” we used to mean the success of our best players going out in the world and performing as soloists and chamber musicians. In that respect Scandinavian horn playing has been international for a long time. We have a long list of merited horn players like: Frøydis Ree Wekre, Wilhelm and Ib Lanzky-Otto, Bengt Belfrage, Sören Hermansson, Joe Ognibene, Lisa Ford, Jacob Keiding, Hans Larsson, Markus Maskuniitty, just to mention a few. The success of these players has made Scandinavia known and well respected in the field of horn playing.

Iceland and Finland are the leading countries in developing genomic research. The first European Genome Research Center is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Small group of ancestors, little variation in nutrition and small immigration through the history make Scandinavia ideal for genetic research.

In the 1920s there were no Finnish horn players at all in the Helsinki Philharmonic. Horn players were brought in from Germany and Russia. In the early 1930s Holger Fransman had a chance to play with the Philharmonic. Conductor Robert Kajanus recognizing the talent of young Fransman, sent him to Vienna to study with Karl Stiegler, and the rest is history. Fransman returned to Finland, played and educated many generations of horn players almost single handedly. Shortly after Fransman’s return the Finns took over and there hasn’t been any foreign horn players in the Philharmonic ever since.

by Fergus McWilliam, Berlin Philharmonic and the author of "Blow Your OWN Horn"

For an intensive period of several weeks in the summer of 1978 I had the great good fortune to study with the great Danish hornist and teacher Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto. I visited him daily at his private home in Stockholm, each time for up to 6 hours of the most intense work I think I ever did in my life. He was in his 70th year at the time and no longer played the horn, so I never heard his famous sound, but his pianistic skill and musical knowledge seemed to know no limits. The whole time he sat at the piano and accompanied me through what seemed like the entire solo repetoire for horn. 

Wilhelm never really commented on my horn playing in any technical terms, instead he concentrated on the music I was attempting. These seemed in fact to be more coaching sessions than horn lessons. He was such a good pianist and sensitive accompanist, that he could and would allow me to indulge in all kinds of ill-considered tempi. If I unconsciously started to speed up or slow down he would simply indulge me until I hit the wall. Then he would just look at me quizzically and the point was made. I cannot remember him ever telling me how to interpret something, rather he seemed to want me to find my own voice. And along the way I soon discovered that every musical change was accompanied by an appropriate technical adjustment. It was the discovery of this formula which has confirmed the basis of my own teaching: that musical playing leads to technical improvement.

Tone Sundgård Anker was born in Trondheim, Norway. She was educated as a  music teacher at Østlandets Musikkonservatorium in Oslo. After her teaching diploma she graduated with an orchestral diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen in Germany as a student of professor Francis Orval. Furthermore she took soloist- and chamber music diploma from Hochschule für Musik Winterthur, Switzerland, with teacher David Johnson. Since 1996 Tone Anker has been the solo horn player in Odense Symfoniorkester, Denmark, and has had several solo performances with this orchestra. She is active as a teacher at Odense Musikskole and Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium and Southern Denmark Conservatory of Music. Besides this she frequently plays chamber music and is a member of a trio for horn, violin and piano. She was interviewed for the IHS E-Newsletter by Advisory Council member Kristina Mascher.

When most of us hear the words “horn” and “Scandinavia,” the next thing that comes to mind is “Frøydis!” No feature on Nordic horn playing would be complete without her. Frøydis Ree Wekre has been an inspiration to generations of musicians worldwide through her exquisite musicianship and pedagogy. Among Frøydis’ own teachers was the great Vitaly Buyanovsky. Here is her live recording of Buyanovsky’s “España” from the Avignon, France IHS symposium in 1982, an interpretation straight from the source. Tusen takk!