BBT Audio
ALEC FRANK-GEMMILL french horn BBT Fellowship 2014
Mozart Horn Concertos
Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas McGegan
BIS SACD-2635 Released 8 November 2024
It is every young horn player’s dream to dive into this iconic repertoire, but Alec took his time…
BBT introduced Alec to BIS in 2014 when he received his Fellowship award and has supported the four albums Alec has meticulously researched and recorded over the last decade, in which time he has developed a secure and creative relationship with the label. The journey to Mozart has been via in-depth explorations of historic and baroque repertoire played on a range of horns – plus some bold transcriptions of works by Brahms for violin and cello – as well as new roads in his own music-making, including conducting.
Coincidentally, it was also over the period of a decade (1781-91) that Mozart wrote these four concertos. As well as bringing his own virtuosity and innate musicality to these recordings, Alec has chosen his own additions and completions to augment the repertoire for the recording, including working with composer Stephen Roberts on a transcription of the slow movement of Mozart’s violin concerto K 211 to complete the ‘unfinished’ Concerto No 1 in D major. Another bonus on the album is ‘Concerto No. 0’ for which Roberts has assembled two fragments from Mozart’s early attempts at a horn concerto. While no stranger to performing on a range of period horns, including the natural valveless horn that Mozart wrote for, Alec has opted for the greater freedom of a modern instrument for this recording, although he has incorporated a few of the effects that Mozart intended for the old horn.
