Rosetti: Horn Concertos / Moesus, Wallendorf, Willis, Et Al

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ROSETTI Horn Concertos: in E, Murray C50; 1 in E?, Murray C48. 2 Concertos for 2 Horns: in F, Murray C61; 1,2 in E?, Murray...


ROSETTI Horn Concertos: in E, Murray C50; 1 in E?, Murray C48. 2 Concertos for 2 Horns: in F, Murray C61; 1,2 in E?, Murray C55Q: Andante 1,2 • Sarah Willis (hn); 1 Klaus Wallendorf (hn); 2 Johannes Moesus, cond; Kurpfälzisches CO • cpo 777 288 (53:25)


This is a follow-on to cpo 999 734, reviewed by Michael Carter in 27:5. If you liked that CD, this one is more of the same: another raft of Rosetti horn concertos with Wallendorf and Willis, once again the players, and Moesus, once again the conductor. The one difference is the band, this time the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester, instead of the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic. A little research into cpo’s catalog revealed that this is not an anomaly. A number of different chamber and orchestral ensembles have in fact been employed in the label’s on-going Rosetti project, among them the Consortium Classicum, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, and the Mecklenburg Baroque Orchestra. The inconsistency is that some of the releases have featured period instruments, while others have not. This one, and its predecessor, are in the “not” category, which may disappoint those who feel strongly that this music ought to be performed on instruments of the time in which it was written. Long-suffering readers may be surprised to learn that in the case of Rosetti’s horn concertos, I would agree with them.


The Italianized Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792), whose given Bohemian birth name was Anton Rösler, was born in the year Bach died and lived only one year beyond Mozart. He did not live to see the innovations that would transform the French horn into the modern instrument we know today. Those advances began as early as 1815 with the introduction of piston valves, and culminated in the 1830s with the development of rotary valves by Viennese instrument maker Joseph Riedl. French maker François Perinet made further refinements to the earlier piston valve design, but in the end, the rotary valve model won out; universally adopted, it is still in use today by orchestral players, but for one notable exception. That exception is the Vienna Philharmonic, whose horn players, according to the VPO’s Web site, still prefer the “smoother legato playing” made possible by Perinet’s slightly later (1839) piston-valve modifications.


Conductor Moesus is obviously enamored of Rosetti’s horn concertos, for in addition to the current release and the aforementioned CD reviewed by Carter, he recorded another clutch of the concertos for Arte Nova with the same Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic as on the earlier cpo disc, but with a different horn player, Radek Baborák. That CD was reviewed more recently by Jens F. Laurson in 32:6. The good news here is that if you like Rosetti—and every Fanfare contributor so far has voiced enthusiasm—you can collect all three of these releases without acquiring a single duplication.


Rosetti’s music, I agree, is a delightful listen. The style is more or less an approximation of Mozart, though not specifically that of Mozart’s horn concertos, which are not among the wunderkind’s greatest works, or even particularly typical of his overall writing. Rosetti’s musical ideas are strong and characterful, and the composer knows how to extend, continue, and develop them. But another Mozart Rosetti is not. There are crucial elements missing, chief among which are the striking chromatic progressions and the melodies that come from nowhere and that pierce the heart and sear the soul. The absence of inspiration extraordinaire is most noted and missed in the slow movements, which are curiously short and seem to suffer from a deficit of melodic interest. It’s unfair, of course, to discount talent by comparing it to genius. That Rosetti was no Mozart should not distract us from acknowledging the genuine quality of the many fine works he did write.


My appreciation of Rosetti’s music, however, does not extend without critical comment to the performances. I’m afraid I cannot agree with Carter who wrote that Wallendorf and Willis “can be numbered among the finest current exponents of their instrument.” Clearly, Rosetti’s technical challenges push the horn to its limits. But fine musicians and solid professionals as Wallendorf and Willis surely are, there are notes that get away from them in fast and difficult passages, runs that aren’t as clean as they could be, and those nasty little burbles the horn is notorious for that make their unwelcome appearance in register shifts and tricky lip and tongue work. Nor is tone production as even and smooth as it is among the “finest current exponents of their instrument,” such as Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, David Jolley, and Jeffrey Bryant.


In any case, the shortcomings I’ve noted are not serious and might perhaps be overlooked, given the overwhelming technical hurdles Rosetti places before the players. Recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins


Product Description:

  • Release Date: July 28, 2009


  • UPC: 761203728824


  • Catalog Number: 777288-2


  • Label: CPO


  • Number of Discs: 1


  • Period: 2009-07-28


  • Composer: Antonio Rosetti


  • Conductor: Johannes Moesus


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Kurpfälzisches Chamber Orchestra


  • Performer: Klaus Wallendorf, Sarah Willis