On this CD, Norwegian hornist
Åshilld Heinriksen, the first hornist with the
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, performs five popular works for horn and orchestra by Mozart,
Saint-Saëns, Dukas, Glière, and Lars-Erik Larssen, accompanied by that orchestra, led by
Hannu Lintu.
Heinriksen is a fine horn player, fully equipped for this treacherous repertoire written for the orchestra's most devilishly unpredictable instrument. She has a warm and full tone that is especially effective in the Romantic and modern repertoire, and she can produce an incredibly quiet pianissimo when required to. She is especially effective in the
Saint-Saëns Concerto Piece, which showcases the horn's capacity for both bravado and tenderness and demands awe-inspiring agility over the whole of the instrument's wide range. Mozart never completed his fourth horn concerto, leaving only one completed movement and a sketch for a second.
Heinriksen performs a new realization of the second movement, by
Herman Jeurissen, which is very different from the standard version, and it's intriguing to compare the two. The
Helsingborg Symphony plays crisply and idiomatically, and the sound quality is clean and bright.