hornplayer.net Information archive

The recording was made on 21st June 1943 in the Houldsworth Hall which is on Deansgate in Manchester and was the scene of many of my split notes when I was a student in Manchester in the late 60's. It is used for small orchestral/chamber concerts from time to time but is basically a Methodist church hall. The 1st horn of the Halle then was Livia Gollancz, now the head of the famous publishing company. In those days, lady horn players were rare in professional orchestras in Britain. Third horn was the late Enid Roper who once told me that the 4th was an elderly man who had come out of retirement for the war years. He had once been the 1st horn and played 4th on a 'pea shooter' with a B flat crook. Apparently, he could not come to terms with playing down the line to two young women.

A good many of these are now available on CD of course (old Strauss 1 on Testament SBT 1009 for example).

The Mozart 2 seems to me to be a much more "alive" version than the one in the later 1953 Karajan complete set, which while it is beautifully played is rather bland and restrained in feel. This is probably Karajan's influence, as IMHO he was a lousy Mozart conductor! I am certain from my own listening to the early one that Dennis was using his old Raoux in B flat, but the Mozart 4 with Sargent conducting is almost certainly in F.

I also greatly prefer the earlier Strauss 1(Galliera) rather than the later(Sawallich) one. It is better in tune, and absolutely brilliant playing. I would say also Raoux in B flat.

An old friend of mine once discussed the later Strauss sessions with Neil Sanders who was playing in the orchestra. It seems that they recorded the Strauss 1 in the morning, and had some difficulty with it, so that when lunch time came Dennis's lip had completely gone. However, after a slightly longer lunch hour (maybe a bowl of spaghetti?) Dennis came back and ran straight through the Strauss 2 practically flawlessly so that only minor orchestral corrections were necessary.

Incidently, the finest Strauss 2 performance I have ever heard was a live one by Barry Tuckwell in 1971 in Lauceston, Tasmania. I was playing the 1st horn part in the orchestra and remember that there was not a "snick" from Barry ANYWHERE! It was stunning playing, and miles ahead of any of his recordings of the work on all counts.

Joe was talking with Greg Squires who is both a hornist and an audio editor and the Brain recording of the Mozarts came up. They were talking about the fact that at one point the pitch of an entire movement drops well below standard pitch. They attributed that to an error either in the original tape or to a faulty machine. Greg said that it would be an easy thing to bring it back up to pitch with the equipment now available, and that the more he thought about it, the more he'd like to do it. So he did!

Then he took it to EMI, the record company that owns the rights to the original, and gave it to them. He said that this was a labor of love and that he wanted no $$ for it. They told him that the Brain 4 Mozart Concerti was one of the largest selling of their repertoire and that over 800,000 of them had sold. And that was the end of it - or so it seemed.

Joe was browsing through the disc department of some big NYC store and came opon the Brain recording which he already has - and remembered Greg's trip and conversation with EMI. He wondered if anything had ever happened with it. And there on the recording credits was Greg's name with something about remastering. Joe bought the disk, brought it home and it was ALL IN PITCH!

Of course we have to remember that on this august list we were talking a while back about the tempi in the Mozarts and Brains recording etc etc. And since this recording was made as an analog recording, when the pitch dropped, the speed decreased - so the remastering makes it slightly faster, to what we can assume was the original tempo!

Getting the info from me 2nd hand isn't as reliable as it might be. I'll send a copy of this to Joe Anderer and let him straighten out any errors I have made.

Da Bear

OH also - Joe and Virginia brough their alp horns and we played them. What a kick! We played inside the house and the house rocked! Virginia played a lip trill on hers. Amazing. And Joe has bought an Englebert Schmidt triple and had it with him. A fabulously crafted horn that definitely cost more than my car is worth, and I have a Camry! It cost 2/3 of what I paid for my first house! He loves it.