The French Romantic Horn

Penson, Guy; Hallynck, Sophie; Ricercar Academy; Maury, Claude

The system of valves that allowed brass instruments to employ all the notes of the chromatic scale was developed between 1810 and 1820. Players of the natural horn, however, were not completely convinced, judging that the valves removed the characteristic timbre of each key and therefore standardized the instrument’s sound. This dispute was particularly intense in France, where virtuoso horn players such as Dauprat and Gallay never ceased to put forward their arguments in favor of the natural horn. This truly titanic struggle is the basis of this recording, with works that lead up to the first pieces to be composed for valve horn. Born in 1956, Claude Maury studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, where he obtained the highest distinctions in modern horn and chamber music. He then perfected his skills with Francis Orval, Vandriessche André, Michel Garcin-Marrou and Hermann Baumann. In 1981 he won the competition for natural horn Gallay in Perpignan and, in 1984, won another international competition for natural horn in Bad Harzburg, Germany. In 1985, he left the Orchestra of Radio Télévision Belge to devote himself almost exclusively to the practice of ancient horns.

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