Study with Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto
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.
Scandinavian Horn Playing - Getting International
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.
2014 Composition Contest
by Randall Faust, Composition Contest Coordinator
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In 2014, The International Horn Society celebrated the 35th year of its Composition Contest. During this special anniversary year, there were two divisions in the contest.
1. The Featured Composition Division: Compositions in this division were works of moderate difficulty for solo horn and keyboard instrument.
2. The Virtuoso Composition Division: Compositions in this division had no difficulty limitation and were from one of the following instrumentation categories.
- Compositions for Solo Horn (alone/unaccompanied)
- Compositions for Horn Ensemble (two or more players, all horns)
- Horn with chamber ensemble of four or more players (one horn part only)
- Solo Horn featured with large ensemble
(The instrumentation for the divisions will rotate in future contests.)
Horn Playing in Korea
by Dr. Young-Yul Kim
In order to introduce “Horn Playing in Korea” to IHS families throughout the world, I returned to my earliest memories of when I started playing the horn.
In 1972, when I was in third year of Junior High, I rented my first horn, which was a Conn that had many holes covered by tape, and I remember trying to make a sound on it. Later in High School, I bought an old Conn 8D and practiced on it. Then, in college, I had the good fortune to buy an Alexander 103. Everyone was envious – all my colleagues wanted to try my new horn.
During my school years, there were two orchestras in Seoul: the Seoul Philharmonic and the National Symphony, and they played very few concerts. Rarely did foreign orchestras perform in Korea. I still remember two concerts that had a big musical influence on me – the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Octet.
In 1977, when I was a sophomore in college, the Sejong Cultural Center, one of the largest concert halls in Seoul, was built. Celebratory concerts were held every day for almost two months. Various orchestras, opera companies, wind ensembles, and renowned soloists from all over the world performed there – it was a very good experience for me. Concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eastman Wind Ensemble influenced me so much that I received my Master’s degree from Temple University, studying with professors Mason Jones, Daniel Williams, Randy Gardner, and Joe de Angelis. Then I earned my Doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music, studying with professor Verne Reynolds.
When I returned to Korea in 1990, I joined KBS Symphony Orchestra as the associate principal, and I began my career as a professor at the Seoul National University in 1994. I tried to invite renowned horn players and wind players as often as possible to provide my students with diverse master classes. I believe these experiences played a significant role in enhancing my student’s education and developing the wind sections of the Korean orchestras.
My students’ participation in 1995 Yamagata and 2000 Beijing IHS Symposiums were also positive influences, and one of them even won second place in the Philip Farkas competition.
Influential horn players who have given master classed in Korea include Phil Meyer, the New York Philharmonic horn section, Randy Gardner, Daniel Williams and Jeffrey Lang of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Radovan Vlatkovic of the Salzburg Mozarteum, Eric Ruske, Jeff Nelsen, Hermann Baumann, Frank Lloyd, Radek Baborak, David Pyatt, Jacque Adnet, Hans Pizka, Carsten Duffin, Xiaoming Han, James Smelser, Andrew Bain, Peter Kurau, Peter Landgren, William Purvis, Jasper de Waal, Olivier Darbellay, and many more.
Now there are over 40 orchestras in Korea and an Orchestra Festival is held annually at the Seoul Arts Center. Some of the popular repertory performed there includes works by R. Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner, and Stravinsky. I would like to believe that this exposure has resulted in the huge growth of the Korean horn sections.
Here are links to the performances of Beethoven Egmont Overture, arranged by Alan Civil, and Tico Tico performed by Frank Lloyd and SukJoon Lee with the KHS Horn Ensemble at the 2013 Korea International Music Festival.
Prof. Young-Yul Kim DMA College of Music, Seoul National University
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Richard Watkins on Horner's "Collage"
I've worked with James on many film projects over the years but it was playing on the score of 'For Greater Glory', a lesser-known film but full of wonderful horn writing both in a solo and ensemble context, that prompted a conversation about a concerto of some sort for the instrument: what might work, what length it might be and how we could do it. Eventually this led to tonight's collaboration for not one but four solo horns.
Obvious comparisons will be made with Schumann's Konzertstuck but James deliberately sets out to explore the spatial sound of the horns rather than highlighting the virtuosic element. We experimented during the rehearsal (and as is the norm in London there was only one rehearsal the day before the concert!) by placing the four soloists across the stage of the Royal Festival Hall. Of course I've worked with David Pyatt for many years and his colleague and fellow Principal in the LPO, John Ryan, but it was so good to play alongside Jim Thatcher-a legend here in UK as well as in USA! We all really enjoyed working together and spending a little down-time too after the rehearsals. The performance was enthusiastically received by a packed Royal Festival Hall and Collage with James on stage at the end received a worthy ovation!
