This recital of music for soprano, horn, and piano includes several transcriptions, particularly works that originally used cello, but a surprising number were specifically written for this ensemble. The best known is
Schubert's sublime Auf dem Strom, but there are also songs by
Richard Strauss,
Berlioz,
Franz Paul Lachner,
Arnold Cooke, and a set of folk song arrangements by
Havelock Nelson. The combination of voice, horn, and piano is an especially euphonious one, so it's wonderful to find that it has this large a repertoire, including the transcriptions. The late nineteenth century songs, by
Strauss,
Massenet, and
Gounod are especially attractive.
Nelson's Four Irish Songs are idiomatically written and melodically memorable.
Arnold Cooke's cycle Nocturne is thematically related to
Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings. It's an attractive piece, but his settings lack the distinctiveness and variety of
Britten's. Soprano
Annette Betanski's voice is not large or sumptuous, and the recording acoustic doesn't do her any favors, but her tone is pure, her technique is secure, and she is fully invested in these songs.
James Sommerville, principal horn of the
Boston Symphony plays with warm tone, finesse, and absolute confidence, but he also has a restraint where some of these songs call for more abandon. Pianist
Rena Sharon's accompaniments are sensitive, and she plays attentiveness to the soloists. The CD should be of interest to fans of the horn in chamber music and of Romantic vocal music.