All the works on this album were composed by Mozart for his friend, the hornist Joseph Leutgeb, who was also a cheese shop owner in Vienna.
Performer Biography
Wilhelm Bruns, the natural horn soloist on this recording, won first prize at the 1987 natural horn competition in Bad Harzburg and founded the International Natural Horn Academy in 2003.
Composer Biography
Mozart often played practical jokes on Joseph Leutgeb, the hornist for whom these works were written, even writing humorous insults in Italian in one of his scores.
Interpretation
The Mannheim Mozart Orchestra, which performs on this album, uses modern instruments with the exception of brass and timpani, which are played on original instruments, to achieve historical performance practice.
Compositional Technique
Mozart's Horn Concerto K495 features an autograph written in alternating red, green, blue, and black ink, which some interpret as a sophisticated color code for dynamic subtleties.
Instruments
The natural valveless horn, for which these works were written, has a limited range of natural harmonic notes, but its possibilities are expanded by 'hand-stopping' techniques.
Compositional Technique
In the Concerto K447, Mozart uniquely replaces the standard two oboes and two horns with two clarinets and two bassoons, resulting in a softer and darker sound.
