RICHARD GEORG STRAUSS (1864-1949)
CONCERTO No 2 FOR HORN AND ORCHESTRA Op 86
Allegro-- Andante con moto
Strauss's second concerto for horn, written sixty years after his first, belongs
to the same, late period of his creative life as the two late works for wind instruments
(the Symphony and the Sonatina), the Beauty-and-the-Beast style Duet-Concertino for
clarinet and bassoon, and the oboe concerto. All these compositions have in common
a sweet, free-flowing lyricism with the wind instruments given their head in elaborate,
decorative figurations. With these rapturous and romantic confections, Strauss seems
to be returning to the kind of music he had composed in his youth: the wind-only
works, though now far more substantial, take up where he had left off with the early
Serenade and the Suite for thirteen wind instruments; and his second horn concerto
does the same for the concerto of 1882, written perhaps with his father in mind --
Franz Joseph Strauss (1822-1905) who for 49 years was first horn in the Munich Court
Orchestra.
It is arguable that we should see this last reminiscential, backward-looking group
of works as an instinctive response to the bleak and ugly condition of the world
around him. It was 1942. The septuagenarian Strauss and his family, out of favour
with the Nazi party, were allowed to reoccupy their house in Vienna: with the world
in flames, the German invasion of Russia about to begin, the second horn concerto
followed. Joyful in mood, almost to the point of eccentricity considering the state
of affairs in Europe, and offering the horn soloist a stunning opportunity for virtuoso
playing.
This is another work which bears throughout the unmistakable imprint of its creator,
but it is hard to imagine it as the product of a man nearing eighty, as the concerto
moves away in condfident tempo with a cadenza-like passage for the soloist. Strauss's
principal purpose was evidently to exploit the lyrical possibilities of the horn,
soaring through the compass of the instrument while the woodwind add their intricate
embellishments. Notable is the addition of orchestral horns which, as the work draws
to an end, join the soloist in a blazing fanfare. There is no break between the first
and second movements: the Allegro relaxes serenely into the Andante con moto for
a marvellously reflective and tranquil interlude.
Programme Notes by Paul Vaughan ©
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