This month, Ben Goldscheider describes his top horn concertos and why they’re such a joy to play
Interview by Hannah Nepilova
Since performing in the final of the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, Ben Goldscheider has established himself as one of Britain’s leading horn players. Still only 25, he has given recitals at venues ranging from Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw to London’s Royal Albert Hall, and was an ECHO Rising Star for the 2021-2022 season. On 7 and 9 April he gives the world premiere of Huw Watkins’s Horn Concerto at Saffron Hall and Barbican, London.
Richard Strauss Horn Concerto No. 2
Although Strauss’s First Horn Concerto, which he wrote as a teenager, is his most famous, this one, written 60 years later, reveals the experience of the composer in his later years. You see the bombastic elements of the young Strauss, which makes you think of Der Rosenkavalier or Don Juan, but you also get the more introverted Strauss of Metamorphosen, as well as a sense of someone who was trying to break away from conventional structure. This was also the first concerto I played with a professional symphony orchestra – in the BBC Young Musician final – so it’s very special to me.
György Ligeti Hamburg Concerto
All seven of the composers I’ve chosen manage to appreciate what a horn is while doing something new with it. Nobody more so than Ligeti. His Hamburg Concerto pits equal temperament and just intonation against one another, creating a sound world that is totally unique, because there is no better instrument for exploring the harmonic series. But there are other amazing musical characteristics like the sound of African bongos. The result is highly virtuosic and so much fun, with a sense of discovery.
Oliver Knussen Horn Concerto
One of Knussen’s biggest strengths was timbral variety, and in this piece he weaves an incredible tapestry of orchestral colour. I love the way that the horn flits in and out of that tapestry: at times it’s part of the collective; at others, it’s very solitary, for example at the beginning where the horn melody hangs in the air as though it’s echoing off cliffs. It’s also one of the most enjoyable concertos to learn. I was meant to perform it with the London Philharmonic Orchestra last year, but I got Covid before the concert. So, I’m pining to play it.
Benjamin Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Dennis Brain, for whom this was written, wa
