FROM DENNIS BRAIN'S LIBRARY : ALEXANDER ECKLEBE (1904-83) : Sonata for Horn and Piano (1956), ALAN BUSH (1900-95) : Autumn Poem Op.45, ALAN BUSH : Trent’s Broad Reaches Op.36, ARNOLD COOKE (1906-2005) : Rondo in B flat (1952), ARNOLD COOKE : Arioso and Scherzo for Horn, Violin and Piano D63 (1957), PETER RACINE FRICKER (1920-90) : Sonata for Horn and Piano Op. 24, HENRI BÜSSER (1872-1973) : Cantecor for Horn and Piano Op. 77, PAUL VIDAL (1863–1931) : Pièce de Concert (1924), CHARLES TOURNEMIRE (1870–1939) : Fantaisie for Horn and Piano (1931), RAOUL PUGNO (1852–1913) : Solo pour Cor (1900), JEAN-BAPTISTE SENAILLÉ (1687–1730) : Allegro Spiritoso (arr. Joseph Salmon [1864–1943]), CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921) : Le Cygne (The Swan). STEPHEN STIRLING: Horn, TONY HALSTEAD: Piano, with Kathron Sturrock: piano, Christian Halstead: violin.

Description: Several years ago, Stephen Stirling and Anthony Halstead were given access to the music collection amassed by Dennis Brain, widely regarded as the greatest horn player of his generation. To nobody’s surprise this turned out to be a treasure trove of the best music for horn that the best horn player could lay his hands on, including no small number of manuscripts, works written especially for him, and unknown gems that he had championed. The collection includes the only surviving copy – in manuscript – of an otherwise unknown three-movement sonata by the German composer Alexander Ecklebe. Ecklebe was a Schreker pupil who worked for the Berliner Rundfunk, and then after WWII took up a senior position at its successor, RIAS. Brain recorded a recital for the radio station in 1950, which was very likely the impetus for Eklebe's genial and engaging sonata of that year. The other sonata here, by Fricker, is by any standard a major work in the horn repertoire. We’ve done our part to try to dispel the mythical "Fricker problem" previously, describing his music as: "tough, dramatic, meticulously wrought" which "fell out of favour not long after for two main reasons; his doggedly individual idiom never failed to make use of forms considered obsolete by the avant garde" while "at the same time, his highly chromatic extended tonality was branded 'atonal' and therefore 'difficult'; both descriptions are inaccurate and inadequate." The horn sonata does not even approach atonality, despite its share of dissonance and rhythmic complexity it is essentially a boldly expressive, compelling work which tempers its austere tendencies with genuine passion and, in the rapid scherzo, electrifying excitement. The great Alan Bush is represented by his atmospheric evocations of England; the beautiful, elegiac Autumn Poem was written in memory of Noel Mewton-Wood. The French pieces were written for the Paris Conservatoire Concours, and accordingly require a good deal of technique, though in combination with some finely expressive and attractive music, transitioning rapidly through a variety of moods like miniature concertante tone poems. STEPHEN STIRLING: Horn, TONY HALSTEAD: Piano, with Kathron Sturrock: piano, Christian Halstead: violin.