Historic Winds III - First test - Mozart K 495

[Philippe BAYLAC]

Hi,

Here is my first test of Historic Winds III, Eb horn. It's the first section of the Rondeau of Mozart's 4th horn concerto.

Orchestra : Dimension/solo1&2/chamber strings + baroque oboe

Mozart K 495 - Test

Very best.

Philippe

[William]

That is awesome - I love it.  I played the horn solo on this piece myself a few times!  All the Mozart concerti are fantastic and staples of the horn repertoire.   

I thought the repeated eights should be more staccatissimo - they sound a little too long release possibly.  Though maybe there is no shorter version.  I also wondered if you could not do the grace note near the end of that main phrase.  Is it too fast for the supplied articulation?  Anyway this sounds great!  It is good  to hear something from the masterful Philippe again. 

[JBacal]

Hi Philippe, I enjoyed listening. Coincidentally, I just finished a version of the same movement with the same samples. The interesting thing is the two performances sound completely different. I think this is one of the strengths of VSL samples that they can be moulded to suite the sonic and musical preferences of the individual "performer." Best wishes, Jay

[Jos Wylin]

Hi Philippe,

Great performance and wonderful horn sound. Together with the Baycal demo, your version proves again the versatility and adaptability of the VSL instruments in de hands of true masters.

However there's one small remark. Both recordings deal with 'historic winds'. Therefore I would prefer (matter of taste and historic performance) to forget the modern recording techniques and place the instruments more in the same depth with a real balance between soloist and orchestre to increase the symbiosis and organic unity of horn and strings. Thus a nicer dialogue would come to life.

But again I really like both performances and the choice of the horn samples (with the minor differences between them). 

Max

[William]

Where is the other one ? I only heard Philippe's.

This is all made possible by the great samples by the masterful player Marcus Schmidinger who also was behind all the solo horns previously.  He is a true virtuoso with a fantastic, beautiful tone.

[MMKA]

You can find the piece of Jay Bacal at the demos of the natural horns.

[Philippe BAYLAC]

Thanks William, Jay and Max for listening and your kind comments. @Jay : your performance is excellent (as usual) and the natural horn absolutely delightful! @William : it was just a first, incomplete version i posted before taking a week of holidays in the beautiful area of Alsace, on the great wine road... 😉I just forgot the grace notes😵😵 after a few glasses of wine, may be it will be worse... Very best Philippe

[William]

Sounds like a good reason to leave out grace notes -  I envy you!