Martin Owen plays Strauss, Schumann, Weber R Schumann: Konzertstück for four horns, Op. 86*; Weber: Horn Concertino in E minor; R Strauss: Horn Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Martin Owen , *Chris Parkes, *Alec Frank-Gemmill, *Sarah Willis (horn); BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson Chandos CHAN20168 65:32 mins
One of the beauties of this stunning cornucopia is that any one of the four horns cannonading in Schubert’s Konzertstück could have been the soloist for the rest, and the pleasure would still have been unalloyed. As it is, there’s none better than Martin Owen – not even, in the Strauss concertos, brilliant forbears Dennis Brain, Barry Tuckwell or Hermann Baumann. I went straight to the Strauss Second, my favourite of all works for solo horn and orchestra, and was immediately captivated by the rubato, the freedom which Owen uses to suggest an almost improvisatory introduction. Never, surely, has there been more light and shade here or in the youthful inspiration from the other end of Strauss’s long life, all abetted by John Wilson making sure the BBC Philharmonic sounds less than vivacious in even the most perfunctory ensembles.
Curiously the earliest work on the album, Weber’s Concertino, has the most modernistic effects – the multiphonics achieved by both blowing and humming in the ‘recitative’. It’s worth hearing this piece for that alone, but it also has charming variations on the first movement proper, and if the Polacca kicks off more conventionally, the closing stages are also brilliant. Still, there’s no greater tonic than the Schumann, and no better sonorities could be imagined; the recording captures them beautifully, even if the orchestra is a tad set back. It’s sheer joy, with only superficial melancholy adding more colours. I’ll be playing that over and over again.
David Nice
