by Matthew Haislip, D.M.A.

Rounding out my series of 150 great recordings is Part III: Fifty Great Orchestral Recordings. This was the most challenging list to create by far. I spent many months carefully listening to countless recordings and asking for recommendations to make sure I was sufficiently informed before finishing this list. The process led to many wonderful discoveries. I felt like a student again; listening to the same pieces played by different ensembles for days on end. It was exciting and fun!

In order to limit myself to fifty recordings, I decided to only choose CDs of orchestral music. This eliminated many outstanding operatic, ballet, film music, and wind band options that could comprise many individual lists in each category as well. In order to create some diversity of orchestras and pieces listed, I had to leave off some of my very favorite CDs. I did not seek to form a representative list of the “Top 50” of our orchestral excerpts with this list. Instead, I listed some of my favorite recordings across the repertoire that feature inspiring phrasing, sound, color, dynamic contrast, intonation, blend and balance in the horn section from an extensive range of ensembles. There is broad representation of stylistic traditions on this list, and it features orchestras from across the world. This speaks to the great wealth of exciting and inspiring recordings that are available to us as horn players.

It is my hope that this list and this series helps hornists old and young discover exciting recordings that they have not yet heard. We have such a wonderful world of recordings! Happy listening!

John Q. Ericson

Arizona has a regional IHS newsletter, Horn on the Range. The area representative recently asked area horn professors for their thoughts on the topic of longevity, as in playing the horn for many years. As this is a topic that should interest everyone I would like to offer my thoughts here as well.

As I wrote in Horn on the Range, longevity as a horn player relates to at least three areas that may need adjustment over time in relation to the aging process. While each of these items could be expanded into a full article on the topic, these three are important starting points for thought and discussion.

by Jonas Thoms, Assistant Professor of Horn, West Virginia University

The horn solo from the second movement of Symphony No. 5 by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most famous horn solos in the entire repertoire. It is regularly asked for in professional auditions for every part in the horn section and is something that every horn player must be able to perform excellently.

 The excerpt requires musicality and expression, dynamic control, and contains many tempo changes. A successful performance of this excerpt requires repetition of advance planning of the treatment of crescendi, changes in pulse, and musical decisions. The marking for the movement is “Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza.” “Andante” is a moderately slow tempo, “cantabile” means “songlike,” and “con alcuna licenza” means “with some freedom.” The performer should treat this solo as a melody to a beautiful song and feel free to interpret musical elements to make the solo uniquely their own.

 Throughout this practice routine, eighth note subdivisions will be played for any note longer than an eighth. Treat these subdivisions as expressive at all times rather than metronomic. Using this technique, increase the volume in crescendi by ensuring that each note is louder than the previous note. Follow the same practice for decrescendi and pulse changes. This will ensure continuity in these expressive elements.

John Q. Ericson

Outside of the horn world there are a few concepts and terminologies we could stand to adopt. David Hickman in his recent publication Trumpet Pedagogy defines two types of embouchures. One is the fixed-jaw embouchure, a type that won’t work well on the horn at least in the lower register. The other type, of more interest to us, is the floating-jaw embouchure.

Part II: Fifty Great Chamber Music Recordings
By Matthew Haislip, D.M.A.

Part two in my series is a list of fifty of my favorite recordings that feature the horn in chamber music settings. In order to limit the possibilities, I chose to exclude strictly jazz or popular music ensemble CDs. There are, however, numerous CDs in those categories that deserve attention, including those by Arkady Shilkloper, Tom Varner, Vincent Chancey, Adam Unsworth, Genghis Barbie, Julius Watkins, and Adam Wolf, among others.

In the first list, I featured over fifty different soloists, with some CDs featuring several horn soloists. In this list, I chose to feature more than one CD by the same artists in some instances. My aim was to feature fifty of my favorite recordings, and I did not attempt to include a representative recording of each of the most significant pieces for the horn in chamber music. I selected some CDs of transcriptions, as the technical brilliance on those CDs is electrifying. The artists on this list demonstrate peak levels of virtuosity, musicianship, blend, balance, intonation, and phrasing. There is overlap of chamber music and solo repertoire in some CDs from the first and second lists. For example, Marie Luise Neunecker’s spectacular recording of the Britten Serenade is on the solo CD list, as it also features both of the Strauss Horn Concerti, and Lowell Greer’s definitive natural horn recording of the Beethoven Horn Sonata is on this list, as the Brahms Horn Trio is also on that CD.

This list was challenging to assemble. Many equally fantastic recordings were not chosen. At another time, I would likely choose a very different list. My final list in this series will feature fifty of my favorite orchestral recordings. These recordings are organized by alphabetical order of performers or ensemble. Happy listening!