Mozart: Horn Quintet in E flat, K407

Mozart’s contribution to the repertoire of music with wind instruments is of considerable significance. Not only did he write concertos for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn, but he also made frequent use of these instruments in his chamber music. His interest in varied textures and colours led to unusual, sometimes unique, combinations of wind or wind and strings, and many of these works have become cornerstones of the repertoire.

This historically significant recording includes a single movement from a quintet never completed by Mozart before his death. It was one of only a handful of works singled out for by his wife Constanze for particular attention, whilst documenting his other fragments. The Horn Quintet was written for Joseph Leutgeb, a long-standing friend for whom Mozart also composed the four horn concertos, and shows an obvious affection for the instrument and its practitioner.

The Quartet, K370, contains a particularly lovely Adagio, only 37 bars long, but deeply expressive, and the final work here, K452 was considered by the composer himself to be the best work he had produced.

These important works could not be in more talented hands than those of The Gaudier Ensemble, who effervesce outstanding playing throughout in performances that Mozart himself would surely have been proud of. A recording to be relished with the CD player firmly on ‘continuous play’!

The Argentinian horn player Nury Guarnaschelli has played in many well known orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic. She is accompanied by the successful young talented Signum Quartet whose debut album of quartets by Thuille (CAP 5049) was well received.

Of the various wind instruments, it was the natural horn which proved to be the one most favoured by Mozart in his solo instrumental music. Four concertos and a plentiful quantity of chamber scores in which the horn plays the leading role testify to that.Without doubt all this derived from the friendship between the composer and Joseph Leutgeb, a virtuoso player almost 25 years his senior, and who, on a number of occasions, ended up as the target for well-meaning jokes and taunts from Mozart, as is explained in the booklet to this disc. Teunis van der Zwart is one of the world's leading specialists on his instrument today, and here he is joined by other members from the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century for the chamber music (the Quintet, A Musical Joke, the duos), and by the full orchestra conducted by Frans Brüggen for the Horn Concerto, KV477 and for an aria from Mitridate, re di Ponto, which also features the starry vocal talents of North American soprano Claron McFadden. In recordings made between 2006 and 2008 Brüggen and the musicians of his now legendary ensemble once more prove themselves to be on magnificent form in creating a further disc of reference.

The Fibonacci Sequence, now well established as one of the foremost chamber ensembles in Britain.

Composed of musicians of international repute, the Fibonancci Sequence is distinguished by the variety and imagination of its programming. Here, they explore the repertoire for horn with founder member and renowned horn player Stephen Stirling with an international reputation as a chamber musician. The repertoire on this disc presents Richard Strauss' symphonic tone poem 'Till Eulenspiegels’, the beguiling ‘Idyll for horn and string quartet’ by Alexander Glazunov, Mozart’s Quintet in Eb KV407 (386c) for horn and strings with the unique scoring pairing violas rather than two violins, Koechlin’s ‘Four Pieces’ (or tiny vignettes) for horn, violin and piano, the beautiful oddity 'Serenata in Vano' for cello, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn by Carl Nielsen and Poulenc’s uniquely scored Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone.