The horn of Leutgeb and Mozart : investigation and experimentation

Nicolas Roudier

A lot of researches have been conducted on Mozart's work and how to play it, including by myself. Eventhough those works helped our comprehension of this music, we still don't know what particular horn did Leutgeb (the composer's hornist friend) play at the time ; and never have I ever encountered a practical experimentation on such an instrument yet. XVIIIth century horns are rare and never played : every recorded performance of Mozart’s music on hand-horn is played on a copy or a XIXth century horn, which is historically inaccurate. We know a lot of theory ; but no one has gone any further yet. My goal is to step in the unknown : first, to get as close as possible to the horn Leutgeb and Mozart knew ; then, find and play a historical horn from Mozart’s time, and see what impact it has on the playing and the music.

Credits

Horn : Nicolas Roudier

Strings : Vojtech Jakl - 1st violin

Michal Klas - 2nd violin

Lucka Krajcirovicova - viola

Michal Raitmajer - cello

Reconstruction and completion of the fragment : Anders Muskens

Audio and video editing : Luc Henrion

Special thanks : Bart van Oort, Barbara Willi, Frantisek Maly, Vaclav Luks

Recorded on November 27th 2019 in the Janacek Academy of Music, Brno.

Disclaimer

This is an experimental recording that was made in only a couple of hours and with a minimum of preparation, on a 260 years old horn I tried the day before. I was able to gather students from the conservatory in Brno to form a string quartet. It was a daring experience and the string players and I did our best to come up with an acceptable result. The primary focus was only to hear the horn in a playing situation. There was unfortunately no time to record a cadenza.

Nonetheless,

This is the first recording ever of a complete piece on a XVIIIth century horn.

Mozart : Fragment of a horn concerto in E, K494a

On the 1760 Kerner horn

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