The Early Horn – the title bringing Carry On connotations to my mind – is explained thus in Hyperion’s annotation: “Exploring the natural horn’s pivotal role in eighteenth-century chamber music, this album celebrates the instrument’s dramatic arrival from its rustic beginnings all the way into the homes of the aristocracy.” The music – whether by Leopold Mozart and his son Wolfgang Amadeus, the Mozart if you will (his E-flat Quintet, K407, including two violas, the first recording of the posthumous André Edition), Graun, Joseph Haydn & Telemann, and not forgetting the prolific Anon (twice-represented by Concertos) – is consistently attractive, a 78-minute divertimento in twenty-five movements. It’s a showcase for Ursula Paludan Monberg (Danish, born 1982), who has mastered her valve-less (and potentially recalcitrant) instrument to magical effect – smooth tone, subtle and songful phrasing, and bouncy rhythms, accompanied here by seven members of Arcangelo (strings and woodwinds) plus Jonathan Cohen tinkling away on a nice-sounding harpsichord, beautifully recorded. All very agreeable on Hyperion CDA68289 and a feast for horn-fanciers.
The Early Horn – Ursula Paludan Monberg [Hyperion]
