Instrumentation
8 french horns
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Other Information
Commissioned by James Lowe, Janice Lee Sperling MD and the British Horn Trust, for Ellen Campbell and the Horn Octet of the University of New Mexico. Premiered at the University of New Mexico 1995 Composers´ Symposium on 29th March 1995. Subsequent performances in USA at Interlochen Centre for the Arts and the International Horn Society Convention in Oregon. First British performance December 5th 1995 in the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham.
Stanislav Suchanek, who played first horn in the first performance, introduced the work to his colleagues in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, with the result that the first Czech performance, by the Horns of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, took place at the International Horn class ´97 at Nove Straseci on 2nd August 1997 with further performances in the Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague (January 1998 and December 2001), at the Lichtenstein Palace, Prague (August 1998), Bertramka Mozarteum (August 2005), Nove Straseci (August 2002 and 2005), at the Church Stretton and South Shropshire Festival (UK) in July 2005, and at the Engelbert Schmid Concert Hall, Mindelzell, Bavaria, Germany in September 2008. They recorded the work in 1998 for Czech Radio and for CD entitled ´Czech Philharmonic Horns´ (Classicprint label CPVP12CD An excellent review of the CD can be found on www.musicweb.uk.net - the CD was awarded 5 stars and voted CD of the month (September 2000) and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in November 2000, on Dutch Radio in April and August 2001, and twice on Austrian Radio in 2002.
As a result of the CD, Andrew Downes was commissioned to compose a Concerto for 4 Horns and Orchestra, which was premiered by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Valek in the Dvorak Hall, Prague, on 28th February and 1st March 2002, and a work for 8 Wagner Tubas for the 2005/6 Czech Philharmonic season. Downes´ Sonata for Brass Sextet, dedicated to Stanislav Suchanek and the Czech Philharmonic Brass as a token of the composers´ gratitude for the wonderful interpretation of his Sonata for 8 Horns, was premiered in the Dvorak Hall, Prague, on 21st February 2001
´This is an excellent addition to the horn ensemble repertoire... has plenty to engage all eight players, as well as the listener.. a challenging and satisfying piece.´
John Pineguy - THE HORN MAGAZINE
´...25 minutes of real quality, immediately attractive, deeply-felt, elegantly idiomatic in scoring, and profoundly memorable.
´The music paints the wide open spaces of New World landscapes, buoyed up with the upbeat rhythms of Africa. Melodies ride broadly over compelling textures or dance gravely in echoes of the Renaissance. A scherzo movement revels in the horn´s natural ´hunting´ quality...´
THE BIRMINGHAM POST
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