Robert Schumann - Konzertstück For Four Horns And Orchestra (1849)

A valveless brass instrument will sound the pitches of the harmonic series (see here for a horn example). Players produce these notes by varying the tension of the lips and the speed of the air travelling through the instrument. Skilful performers on the ‘natural’, valveless horn developed ways of filling in the gaps, through a combination of ‘stopping’ (altering the position of the hand in the bell) and bending notes by simply using the lips. The valved horn arrived on the scene around 1814, and improvements were made over the following decades (interesting article on these developments here). Over time, this did away with the need for the stopping and bending of notes, and began to give composers access to the full chromatic scale in decent, consistent sound*.  Some composers embraced the new technology, while others remained attached to the older instrument. Brahms was a notable champion of the natural horn - for instance, he always insisted that his marvellous trio for violin, horn and piano (1865) should only be played on the valveless instrument.

Brahms - Trio for violin, horn and piano op. 40 - Isabelle Faust (violin, Stradivarius ‘Sleeping Beauty’ - 1704); Teunis van der Zwart (natural horn, Lorenz - 1845); Alexander Melnikov (Bösendorfer piano - 1875)

In a performance as fine as this, it is perhaps possible to hear what Brahms felt was in danger of being lost. For starters, this natural horn (or ’Waldhorn,’ as Brahms would have known it) makes a gorgeous, rich sound. More subtly, the variation in tone across the range of the instrument is fascinating; I have a feeling of getting to know the unique character of the old horn as the music progresses. Van der Zwart is a marvel, shifting fluently between the full open notes and the more pinched, stopped notes, without doing any damage to Brahms’ long phrases. A record to set alongside the finest modern instrument performances.

Sixteen years before Brahms wrote his horn trio, Schumann was in the middle of a purple patch. Over the course of 1849, his work expanded in a variety of directions at once, resulting in 40-odd pieces of music (these few pages from John Daverio’s excellent book give a good idea of the range of work he produced - scroll to page 390). His major contributions to the horn repertoire arrived in this year, beginning with the Op. 70 Adagio and Allegro for valve horn and piano. Schumann’s enthusiasm for the new instrument is clear; while some of his 1849 output was designed for amateur musicians, his Op. 70 is an almost gleefully tricky study of the valve horn’s possibilities:

Schumann - Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, Op. 70 - David Cooper (horn); Cary Chow (piano)

A few months later, Schumann produced this astonishing piece for four valve horns and orchestra:

Schumann - Konzertstück for 4 Horns and Orchestra, Op. 86 - Nigel Black, Laurence Davies, Laurence Rogers, Peter Blake (horns); Philharmonia / Christian Thielemann

Movement 2 here / Movement 3 here.

On first hearing, the most striking thing about the Konzertstück is the glorious sound of Schumann’s powerful superinstrument; that opening salvo is the first of many great moments of unfiltered four horn colour. Throughout the first movement, he plays with this familiar, heroic aspect of the horn’s character, alternating perilous (natural horn?) fanfares with smoother, softer (valve horn?) phrases. The second movement Romanze begins with a horn duet, all half-lights and gently reaching lines. Schumann has the second horn closely follow the first in canon, before establishing a pizzicato pulse, over which all four horns open up and sing more freely. This beautiful passage returns later in the finale, which is otherwise a good-natured romp.

Cruelly, the best performances of the Konzertstück seem to be those which drive the quartet quite hard. The exceptionally difficult first and third movements should move fairly swiftly, if they’re not to come across as too polite or smoothed out. There needs to be a sense of risk - a feeling that someone might crack a note in the first movement fanfares, or maybe struggle to keep up in the to and fro of the finale (even though we know that wouldn’t survive the edit). The Thielemann performance above is very fine, distinguished by some especially strong first horn playing, and a really lovely group sound in the slow movement (in a biggish church acoustic - All Hallows, Gospel Oak).

As it’s such a terror to pull off (particularly for the first horn), the Konzertstück is a relative rarity in the concert hall. I heard it years ago in Nottingham from the choir stalls (not recommended), and then again at the 2007 Proms, as part of a day of brass-themed concerts. Thankfully, this Proms performance was included on the cover CD of BBC Music Magazine a few years later. It might take you a few minutes to track down a second-hand copy online, but it would be well worth your trouble.

David Pyatt, Michael Thompson, Martin Owen and Cormac Ó hAodáin are superb throughout, as is Charles Mackerras, alert as always, pushing and pulling in all the right places. Everything is that bit more vivid here - in the moment, the horns encourage each other to greater feats of virtuosity and volume, and orchestra and audience are right behind them. Very highly recommended.

* The invention of the valve created a few problems for experienced natural hornists. Players faced not only getting to grips with the valves themselves, but also the added difficulty of learning to transpose music at sight - where the valveless horn player would change key by fitting the correct length piece of tubing (or ‘crook’), the valved instruments were pitched in a single key, requiring players to make the necessary adjustments in their heads.