Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major,
K. 495 was completed in 1786.
Structure
The work is in three
movements
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
:
#
Allegro
Allegro may refer to:
Common meanings
* Allegro (music), a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright
* Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement
Artistic works
* L'Allegro (1645), a poem by John Milton
* ''Allegro'' (Satie), an ...
moderato
# Romance (Andante cantabile)
#
Rondo
The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period.
Etymology
The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round".
Despite the common etymological root, rondo ...
(Allegro vivace) 6/8
A typical performance duration of the concerto takes 16–18 minutes.
The manuscript, written in red, green, blue, and black ink, was formerly considered as a jocular attempt to rattle the intended performer, Mozart's friend
Joseph Leutgeb
Joseph Leutgeb (or Leitgeb; October 6, 1732 – February 27, 1811) was an outstanding horn player of the classical era, a friend and musical inspiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Life
Leutgeb was born in Neulerchenfeld, but little is known o ...
. However, recently it was suggested that the multicolored score may also be a kind of "color code".
The last movement is a "quite obvious" example of the hunt topic, "in which the intervallic construction, featuring prominent
tonic and dominant triads in the main melody, was to some degree dictated by the capability of the horn, and so was more closely allied with the original 'pure' characteristics of the '
chasse' as an open-air hunting call."
[John Irving, ''Mozart, the "Haydn" quartets''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1998): 95, note 20. "Once defined, however, such 'chasse' characteristics could survive transplantation to other instruments and genres," such as the String Quartet in B-flat, K. 458.]
This concerto is one of Mozart's two horn concerti to have
ripieno The ripieno (, Italian for "stuffing" or "padding") is the bulk of instrumental parts of a musical ensemble who do not play as soloists, especially in Baroque music. These are the players who would play in sections marked ''tutti'', as opposed to s ...
horns (horns included in the orchestra besides the soloist), though, in contrast to K. 417, the solo horn in this one duplicates the first ripieno horn's part in the
tutti
''Tutti'' is an Italian word literally meaning ''all'' or ''together'' and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist. It is applied similarly to choral music, where the whole section or choir is called to sing. ...
passages.
Discography
Given its duration (no more than 20 minutes), it is quite common to find this Horn Concerto with Mozart's other three.
Discography on modern instruments
* 1954:
Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain (17 May 19211 September 1957) was a British horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served in the Roya ...
(horn);
Philharmonia Orchestra,
Herbert Von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...
(conductor), EMI
* 1961:
Alan Civil
Alan Civil OBE (13 June 1929 – 19 March 1989) was a British horn player.
Civil began to play the horn at a young age, and joined the famous Royal Artillery Band and Orchestra at Woolwich, while still in his teens. He studied the instrument ...
(horn);
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer (conductor), EMI
* 1964:
Barry Tuckwell
Barry Emmanuel Tuckwell, (5 March 1931 – 16 January 2020) was an Australian French horn player who spent most of his professional life in the UK and the United States. He is generally considered to have been one of the world's leading horn p ...
(horn);
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
,
Peter Maag
Ernst Peter Johannes Maag (10 May 1919 – 16 April 2001) was a Swiss conductor.
Early life
Peter Maag was born on 10 May 1919 in St. Gallen, Switzerland and died on 16 April 2001 in Verona, Italy.
His father, Otto, was a Lutheran minister, ...
(conductor), Decca
* 1970:
Gerd Seifert (horn);
Berliner Philharmoniker
The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
History
The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...
, Herbert von Karajan (conductor), Deutsche Grammophon
* 1972:
Alan Civil
Alan Civil OBE (13 June 1929 – 19 March 1989) was a British horn player.
Civil began to play the horn at a young age, and joined the famous Royal Artillery Band and Orchestra at Woolwich, while still in his teens. He studied the instrument ...
(horn);
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London.
John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy o ...
,
Sir Neville Marriner (conductor), Philips
* 1975:
Peter Damm
Peter Damm (born 27 July 1937, Meiningen, Thuringia, Thüringen) is a German French horn, horn player.
He began his musical education aged eleven, on the violin, and started playing the horn in 1951 and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy in 19 ...
(horn); Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (conductor), Philips
* 1980:
Günter Högner (horn);
Wiener Philharmoniker
The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. It ...
,
Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss.
Life and career
Education
Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...
(conductor), Deutsche Grammophon
* 1984: Barry Tuckwell (horn & conductor);
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationall ...
, Decca
* 1985:
Hermann Baumann (horn);
St Paul Chamber Orchestra,
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
Life and career
Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...
(conductor), Philips
* 1985:
Michael Thompson (horn); Philharmonia Orchestra,
Christopher Warren-Green
Christopher Warren-Green (born 30 July 1955) is a British violinist and conductor. He was born in Gloucestershire and attended Westminster City School, where he was a chorister, and later the Royal Academy of Music.
Warren-Green has served a ...
(conductor), Nimbus
* 1985:
Francis Orval (horn);
Brussels Festival Orchestra,
Robert Janssens (conductor), Marcophon
* 1987:
Dale Clevenger
Dale Clevenger (July 2, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American musician who was the Principal Horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1966 until his retirement in June, 2013. (horn);
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra
The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra ('':hu:Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekar, Liszt Ferenc Kamarazenekar'') is a chamber orchestra based in Budapest, Hungary.
The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra took the name of the great composer, to pay homage to the ge ...
,
János Rolla (conductor), Sony
* 1987:
Radovan Vlatković (horn); English Chamber Orchestra,
Jeffrey Tate
Sir Jeffrey Philip Tate (28 April 19432 June 2017) was an English conductor of classical music. Tate was born with spina bifida and had an associated spinal curvature. After studying medicine at the University of Cambridge and beginning a me ...
(conductor), Warner
* 1988:
David Jolley (horn);
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (founded 1972) is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards. The orchestra is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a cond ...
, Deutsche Grammophon
* 1993:
Frank Lloyd
Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its preside ...
(horn);
Northern Sinfonia
Royal Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, founded in Newcastle upon Tyne and currently based in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave most of its concerts at the Newcastle City Hall. Since 2004, the ...
,
Richard Hickox
Richard Sidney Hickox (5 March 1948 – 23 November 2008) was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.
Early life
Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family. After attending the Royal Gram ...
(conductor), Chandos
* 1996:
Luc Bergé (horn);
Prima la Musica
Prima may refer to:
* ''Prima (magazine), Prima'', a French women's magazine
* Prima (news agency), a human rights news agency in Moscow
* Prima (locomotive), a locomotive type by Alstom
* Place of the Relevant Intermediary Approach, a legal doctr ...
,
Dirk Vermeulen (conductor), Eufoda
* 1997:
David Pyatt
David John Pyatt (born 26 September 1973) is a horn player from Watford, England. In 1988, aged 14, he became the then youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. In 1996 Gramophone Magazine announced David Pyatt as th ...
(horn); Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (conductor), Warner
* 2006:
Johannes Hinterholzer (horn);
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg
The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg is an Austrian orchestra, based in the town and state of Salzburg. The orchestra gives concerts in several Salzburg venues, including the '' Großes Festspielhaus'', the Great Hall of the Stiftung Mozarteum. ...
,
Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton (born 17 May 1958) is an English conductor and harpsichordist.
Early life and education
Bolton was born in Blackrod, Greater Manchester, England. He studied at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and Clare Co ...
(conductor), Oehms
* 2011:
Alessio Allegrini
Alessio is a mostly Italian male name, Italian form of Alexius.
Individuals with the given name Alessio
*Alessio Ascalesi (1872–1952), Italian cardinal
*Alessio Boni (born 1966), Italian actor
* Alessio Cerci (born 1987), Italian footballer
* ...
(horn);
Orchestra Mozart
The Orchestra Mozart or Orchestra Mozart Bologna is an Italian orchestra based in Bologna.
Creation
The orchestra was created in 2004 by Carlo Maria Badini, as a special project within the Regia Accademia Filarmonica (Philharmonic Academy) of B ...
,
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
(conductor), Deutsche Grammophon
* 2018:
Javier Bonet (horn);
Munich Radio Orchestra
The Munich Radio Orchestra (German: ''Münchner Rundfunkorchester'') is a German symphony broadcast orchestra based in Munich. It is one of the two orchestras affiliated with the Bavarian Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk), the other being the Bavaria ...
,
Hermann Baumann (conductor), ARSIS
Discography on period instruments
* 1974: Hermann Baumann (natural horn);
Concentus Musicus Wien,
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor), Teldec
* 1987: Anthony Halstead (natural horn);
Hanover Band
The Hanover Band is a British orchestra specialised in historically informed performance, founded by its artistic director, Caroline Brown.
The group's website explains the name thus: '' 'Hanover' signifies the Hanoverian period 1714-1830 and ' ...
,
Roy Goodman
Roy Goodman (born 26 January 1951) is an English conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Alle ...
(conductor), Nimbus
* 1990:
Timothy Brown (natural horn);
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera Artistic Associate at Kings Place, and h ...
,
Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken (; born 16 February 1944) is a Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor known for playing on period and original instruments.
Biography
Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble ...
(conductor), Erato
* 1993:
Ab Koster (natural horn);
Tafelmusik
Tafelmusik (German: literally, "table-music") is a term used since the mid-16th century for music played at feasts and banquets. Table music could be either instrumental, vocal, or both. As might be expected, it was often of a somewhat lighter c ...
,
Bruno Weil
Bruno Weil (born 24 November 1949, in Hahnstätten) is a German symphonic conductor. He is principal guest conductor of Tafelmusik, the period-instrument group based in Toronto, Music Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and artist ...
(conductor), Sony
* 1994:
Anthony Halstead (natural horn);
Academy of Ancient Music,
Christopher Hogwood (conductor), L'oiseau lyre
* 2007:
Teunis van der Zwart (natural horn);
Freiburger Barockorchester
Freiburger Barockorchester (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) is a German Baroque orchestra founded in 1987, with the mission statement: "to enliven the world of Baroque music with new sounds".
History
The orchestra is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. ...
,
Gottfried von der Goltz
Gottfried von der Goltz (born 1 June 1964 in Würzburg, Germany) is a German violinist and conductor, specialising in the baroque repertoire. Born into the ancient Brandenburgish Goltz family, Gottfried was a great-grandson of the former commande ...
, (conductor), Harmonia Mundi
* 2007:
Paul Van Zelm (natural horn);
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam,
Jan Willem De Vriend, (conductor), Etcetera
* 2013:
Roger Montgomery
Roger Montgomery (1925–2003) was an American architect, and Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and University of California, Berkeley.
Early life and education
Roger Montgomery was born in New York City to parents Graham Livings ...
(natural horn);
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera Artistic Associate at Kings Place, and h ...
,
Margaret Faultless (concert master/conductor), Signum
* 2015:
Pip Eastop (natural horn); The Hanover Band, Anthony Halstead (conductor), Hyperion
In 1963
Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a scho ...
set the Rondo movement to words for their song "Ill Wind" from the album ''
At the Drop of Another Hat
''At the Drop of Another Hat'' is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its long-running predecessor, ''At the Drop of a Hat'' (1956). In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. T ...
''.
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Horn concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Compositions in E-flat major
1786 compositions