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A recent thrift store find was a Phillips recording of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 performed with a horn instead of a trumpet. The hornist is Barry Tuckwell, and it is absolutely a charming recording! I found a version of it on YouTube (from a different Phillips recording), but it is not an official version, just one someone posted from the vinyl recording, so the link probably won’t last. Feel free to first listen below for a sense of that recording, and read on as to why this is not a crazy idea.
The case for horn
In our horn repertoire class in recent years I have highlighted a recording done in the same manner by Steven Gross. In his CD liner notes the case for horn instead of trumpet is laid out very well, as follows:
Concerning the Second Concerto, the question concerning the brass part always has been: trumpet or horn? Original parts are not extant and thus provide no guidance.
Dr. Gross believes that Bach had the horn in mind, and bases his decision on contextual grounds both political and aesthetic, among which are that:
1) there was considerable confusion in Bachs’ day about the use of ‘trumpet’ and ‘horn’; ‘trumpets’ could be called ‘horns’ and ‘horns’ could refer to a variety of wind instruments;
2) Bachs’ score, as copied by Christian Fredrich Penzel who had attended the Thomasschule, at Bachs’ church in Leipzig, says the part for brass instruments is to be played by ‘tromba, o vero corno da caccia’ (‘trumpet, otherwise hunting horn’);
3) when Bach wrote for horn, it was for horn in F; were a trumpet to perform the Second Brandenburg, it would be the only instance in Bach’s works of the use of a trumpet in F. For Baroque composers, the instrument of choice was trumpet in D;
4) the composition’s orchestration offers no compelling reasons to prefer trumpet over horn. By using the horn, the solo group plays in the same register and blends together. The trumpet, on the other hand, plays an octave higher and dominates the other solo players.
And it sounds better
Again, maybe I’m biased, but I think the work really does sound charming when performed on the horn instead of trumpet. The key movements of the Steven Gross recording are below, what do you think?
