As a music teacher and hornist who has performed all of the Mozart horn concertos at one time or another, I am probably more picky about recordings of these works than anything else. Everyone always upholds the Dennis Brain recordings as the best, and rightly so. Brain was the all-time master of the horn, period. The problem is that he died young and his Mozart recordings were made in the 1950s. Yes, the CD has been remastered and sounds quite good, but there's only so much a producer can do.
That's why one recording of these masterpieces simply will not do.
This CD by Barry Tuckwell most assuredly needs to be the "other" recording one has in their collection. Tuckwell with his gorgeous tone, fantastic range, and excellent lip trills is easily the best hornist in the past few decades. He plays each concerto with spirit and aggression in contrast to Brain's more controlled and leisurely interpretation. His cadenzas are more modern and showy yet maintain classical style and taste. The ASMF provides perfect, well-balanced accompaniment with, interestingly enough, a harpsicord playing basso continuo underneath the orchestra (a feature that may or may not have been used when Mozart first debuted these concertos).
Finally, the original recordings are modern enough that when digitally remastered, they sound clear as a bell. So yes, buy the Brain recording, he is the best hornist of all time. But this recording by Tuckwell is marvellous and should be immediately added to one's collection. Both recordings are correct, both are beautiful, but both are different. Therefore, both are needed. Buy it now.
