Hornroh Modern Alphorn Quartet
Friday, February 6, 2026
Concert Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
The surnames Haas and Bruckner are synonymous with each other, although the Haas represented here isn’t Robert (one of Bruckner’s principal editors), rather it’s Georg Friedrich Haas (born 1953), his Concerto grosso No.1 for four alphorns and orchestra (2014). “Alphorns are not seen as symbols of folklorist culture, but rather as the source of another dimension of intonation (overtone chords), used to create contrast and to expand the traditional twelvetone tuning of the symphony orchestra.” (Haas)
Eerie string details, suspenseful crescendos percussion-tapped, the lengthy-by-design, coloured yellow, four alphorns’ call of the wild across a wide area, overtones, the orchestra subtly changing its hues – and so it was for thirty-one minutes, suggesting the soundtrack to a scary or sci-fi movie, for which Haas’s score would work brilliantly, genuinely. If the alphornists struggled occasionally with sustaining notes, and intonationally, the design of the piece could have been shorter or longer, there was nevertheless a clear signal that last breaths had arrived. Actually two of the players had doubled on nearly-as-long instruments, and for an encore one of them cradled a baby-sized alphorn for a sweet melody underpinned by the monster ones, their sound-holes reaching the floor and held secure by plinths.
The orchestra held its own sustains nobly under Jonathan Nott’s patient baton-less direction, and he went on to deliver an excellent Sixth Symphony by Haas’s fellow-Austrian, Anton Bruckner, perhaps his most Classical work, Nott underlining this with the purpose of his approach and the clarity of the structure that emerged, if not overlooking that the first movement’s third subject needs to blossom romantically, duly brought out, so too the importance of bass lines and the use of antiphonal violins. The slow movement, with soulful oboe solo, married inner reflection with the right degree of journeying, so much being beautifully expressed, followed by a Scherzo of momentum without negating crisp phrasing, especially in the brass, with ripe horns in the Trio, and then a Finale of integration that didn’t attempt to lose sight of whimsy. It was good to be reminded of Nott’s prowess as a Bruckner conductor, the FRSO responding with alacrity.