- Louis Spohr
- Daniel Basckin
- Giuseppe Gazzaniga: L'isola d'Alcina
- Louis Fleury
- Paul English
- David Boe
- Midlothian
- William Congreve
Heights of Agility
MIKE WHEELER listens to Beethoven, Brahms, Messiaen and Mozart from Martin Owen and Anna Tilbrook
The combination of horn and piano is not one I can remember having heard at Derby Chamber Music before, so it was good to hear Martin Owen and Anna Tilbrook on their first visit - Multi-Faith Centre, Derby University, 10 November 2024.
Owen's affable introduction put us in the mood for the equally easy-going Horn Sonata Beethoven wrote for the player known as Giovanni Punto, with whom the composer, typically, later fell out. Owen's assertive opening met a delicate reply from Tilbrook, who had her share of forceful statements later, both players rising to heights of agility. They made a poignant oasis of the short second movement, easing into the finale, where they deftly navigated the switches from lyrical to energetic and back, as well as the music's wide dynamic range.
Martin Owen. Photo © Davide Cerati
Another moment of calm, shot through with poignancy, followed, in the first of Brahms' three Intermezzos, Op 117. The lullaby theme was always well balanced with the surrounding textures, and in the reprise following the middle section, soft chiming figures in the upper part of the keyboard made a particular impression.
Anna Tilbrook
Messiaen's Appel Interstellaire, the unaccompanied horn solo that forms the sixth movement of his vast orchestra canvas Des Canyons aux Étoiles ..., has become something of showpiece for the instrument. Owen set the scene with anecdotes about Messiaen's visit to his source of inspiration for the whole work, Bryce Canyon, Utah, and about an occasion, during a complete performance of the work, when he ended up playing the piece in total darkness. He was in full command of Messiaen's demanding range of playing techniques and expression, from the forceful, even strident calls, to the most soft-grained echoes, and the withdrawn conclusion was compelling.
Brahms' Clarinet Sonata Op 120 No 2 ended the recital in a transcription by Scott Brubaker. While helping to fill out the horn-and-piano repertoire, it inevitably changes the work's character to some extent. The horn's tone is less mellow and intimate than the clarinet's at times, and in its upper range, especially, it tends to become too ... well, brassy. I did wonder whether the Sonata would work better on a natural horn. Brahms is known to have preferred its tone to that of the valved instrument, but then this would pose its own challenges in terms of pitching certain notes.
Nevertheless, there were rewarding moments. Tilbrook was a sympathetic partner throughout, and Owen made the most of lyrical passages such as the second movement's middle section. In the third movement, doubt about the transcription seemed less insistent. The theme suited the horn better, its agility in Variation 2 was well matched by Tilbrook's flickering figuration, and the racing figures and intricate rhythms were adroitly managed, as was the spectacular two-and-a-bit octave chromatic descent towards the end, and the coda was wonderfully exuberant.
Their encore - the finale of Mozart's Horn Concerto No 4 - galloped along nicely.
Copyright © 19 November 2024
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
