In this series, the AHE brings you a full expression of Mozart’s mercurial nature and stunning works for the natural horn.
Mozart was enamoured of the rich, bright sound of the horn, and, after many requests, completed his delightful Horn Quintet for the horn player Ignaz Joseph Leutgeb, an old friend of the family, in 1782. Known as a ‘little love duet’ between horn and violin, this work is a joyous, abundant expression of their friendship.
It’s also a brilliant opportunity to hear AHE soloist Carla Blackwood at her scintillating best.
By contrast, the Mozart string quintet No. 4 in G minor is Mozart at his most eloquent in a time of personal pain and disappointment in his own life. Worried by his father’s illness and disappointed by lack of recognition, he returns to the G minor key and creates a work of mesmerising energy and complexity.
AHE continues its practice of bringing lesser-known composers to the fore, with the spirited Horn Quintet in E flat Major by Hauff and the Romance in A Major for Horn and String Quartet, an arrangement of the slow movement of Mozart’s Horn Concerto attributed to Joseph Haydn’s brother Michael, a great friend of Mozart’s.
Mozart’s Horn is an experience of deep shadows and bright light, discovery and virtuosity.