Customer Reviews

R. Strauss: Horn Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Duet Concertino / Serenade for Wind ~ Pyatt

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David Pyatt has been hailed as successor to the sainted Dennis Brain. He won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award in 1988 when he was only 14--the youngest recipient ever--and made this totally accomplished recording of the two Strauss horn concertos in 1994, just out of his teens. The comparison to Brain isn't frivolous. It would be hard to imagine a more lyrical player; like Brain, Pyatt can make the French horn sound like a true woodwind. He has a meltingly lovely tone, on the feminine side, again like Brain, favoring supplenesss over power.

The British have a proud heritage of horn virtuosos (Brain, Alan Civil, Barry Tuckwell) for Pyatt to join. This CD was widely admired in the UK, though I htink it went unnoticed in the U.S. Besides the two concertos, it includes Strauss's early Serenade in E-flat and a really lovely rendition of his last orchstral work, the Duet-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon from 1947 (the horn doesn't play here). Nicholas Cleobury conducts expertly, and it's nice to hear these works accompanied by a chamber ensemble (the Britten Sinfonietta), which puts the horn in more comfortable balance than a full orchestra.

Fabulous. Buttery, resonant sound leavened at appropriate moments by gleaming artillery shots. Very rapid technique with unbelievably mature interpretations.

Strauss 1 may be heard by walking by any high school bandroom on a Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it needs expert care. Pyatt's recording breathes life into a piece that has fallen victim to too much hackneyed student playing (including my own) and to ill-considered, usually bombastic professional renditions.

Strauss 2 is a different problem. Typical of Strauss's late, humanistic lyricism, it has its own built-in maturity, which only a few recordings since Brain's have captured. John Cerminaro's live performance is of course an important document, but Pyatt's could turn out to be your favorite.

This CD also has some of Strauss's chamber music that is can't-miss stuff.

This is a remarkably good recording of a Strauss work which shows his lyrical, romantic style at its best. Excellent sound.

I've always been a fan of Richard Strauss ever since I heard his "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "Eine Alpensinfonie". Now that I've heard his two Horn Concertos, Wind Serenade, and Duet Concertino, my admiration has grown.

The Horn Concerto No. 1 is very Beethoven-like. It has a certain sheen that is apparent in almost every Straussian concerto, and that is saying alot. There are no breaks in between the three movements. The Horn Concerto No. 2 is a different story. It was created during Nazi Germany( the early 40's) and it shows Strauss's more projected lyricism that is surfaced at that time. Personally, I like the first concerto better.

The Wind Serenade and Duet Concertino are more than just fillers. They show a progress. Wind Serenade was created in 1881, before the composer would get a sense of his own uniqueness in the late romantic/early 20th century period. The Duet Concertino was created in post-war Germany, and that explains a lot. It shows progress as it has the famous Straussian lyricism that dominated his works in his older years. These are two works that are not to be missed.

David Pyatt is a marvel with the French Horn, and it's surprising to see that he performed these recordings in his early twenties. Nicholas Cleobury and the Britten Sinfonia do an excellent job with these works. This gets an A- from me.

In 1988, at the age of 14, DAVID PYATT became the youngest winner of the prestigious BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. He won this award performing Strauss's Second Horn Concerto. In 1996 he released this recording and it prevails ofer every recording I have ever heard. The balance between the orchestra and the soloist creates a vocal approach to Strauss' late work. The maturity of Pyatt's sound and musicality makes for an ideal approach to what Strauss was looking for. I stongly recommend this recording for all lovers of beautiful music. The only recording that comapres is the legendary Dennis Brain recording.

I bought this CD shortly after it was issued in 1994 and was warmly received but have hardly played it since, so that rediscovering the music was more like encountering it for the first time. Nearly sixty years separate the pieces: the earliest work, the Horn Concerto no.1, was written by the eighteen year old Strauss as a sixtieth birthday present for his professional horn-playing father. It is certainly an interesting harbinger of greater things to come, particularly the second movement which betrays an incongruous combination of the dotted rhythmic figure from the Allegretto of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and a prophetic foretaste of the "Moonlight" music from "Capriccio". This youthful music is a bit raw and derivative but full of the brio and exuberance we associate with the mature Strauss; there is even a Mendelssohnian delicacy to the concluding Allegro.

It is quite a leap from the naive jollity of that to the mellow lyricism of the Duet Concertino which obviously belongs to the same world as the String Sextet that opens "Capriccio" without quite matching its serenity or melodiousness, but which affords some delicious moments, especially in the Andante. It was Strauss's last purely instrumental composition

Back again to Strauss's youth for the Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments where it becomes evident that Strauss's style had already moved on from the First Horn Concerto in to something more subtle and refined.

The final see-saw is to the Second Horn Concerto of 1943; it is in this emotionally complex and mercurial music that one has the opportunity to remark upon and marvel at horn soloist David Pyatt's remarkably supple, pliant, euphonious tone. His quiet playing is exceptionally nuanced yet he can produce a full, brassy blare of sound when he wants to. The orchestral playing and Nicholas Cleobury's conducting match him in refinement.