Alec Frank-Gemmill - Audio

Alec Frank-Gemmill horn
Swedish Chamber Orchestra · Nicholas McGegan conductor

Concerto No. 1 in D major for horn and orchestra
(Adagio arranged & orchestrated by Alec Frank-Gemmill & Stephen Roberts)
Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, K 417
Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, K 477
Concerto No. 4 in E flat major, K 495
Concerto ‘No. 0’ in E flat major, reconstructed & completed by by Stephen Roberts

BIS Records SACD BIS-2635 |  www.bis.se
Released on 8 November 2024 

Ten years on from his BBT Fellowship and four discs into his relationship with record company BIS, French horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill completes a long-held ambition to record Mozart’s Horn Concertos.

But his partnership with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Nicholas McGegan (with whom he collaborated on an earlier disc of horn concertos ‘Before Mozart‘) is different in that he not only plays a completed version of the First Horn Concerto (confusingly the last to be composed) but also includes an earlier, unfinished, concerto, here entitled ‘Concerto No 0’ as reconstructed and completed by Stephen Robets and Frank-Gemmill himself.

This eagerly awaited recording is out on 8 November 2024.

Alec Frank-Gemmill horn
Daniel Grimwood piano
Benjamin Marquise Gilmore violin

Johannes Brahms
Scherzo in C minor from FAE Sonata (transcribed by Simon Smith from original for violin and piano)
Sonata in G minor Op38 (arranged by Daniel Grimwood from original in E minor for cello and piano)
Horn Trio in E flat Op 40

BIS-2478 SACD | bis.se

A new perspective on chamber works by Brahms from the point of view of the horn is offered by Alec Frank-Gemmill on a new SACD recording from Swedish label BIS with pianist Daniel Grimwood and violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore.

At the heart of the album’s repertoire is the Horn Trio, Brahms’ only chamber piece for the instrument with which he was so closely associated, complemented by transcriptions of two other chamber pieces so as to give a voice to the horn – Sonata in E minor Op 38 for cello and piano and the Scherzo from the FAE Sonata for violin and piano.

This is Alec Frank-Gemmill’s third BIS CD supported by his BBT Fellowship.

Alec Frank-Gemmill horns
Alasdair Beatson pianos

Beethoven Horn Sonata Op 17 *
Schumann Adagio und Allegro **
Franz Strauss Nocturno Op 7 **
Rossini Prelude, Theme and Variations †
Saint-Saëns Romance Op 67 †
Glazunov Rêverie Op 24¶
Dukas Villanelle ¶
Vinter Hunter’s Moon ¶

* Cor d’orchestre, Lucien Joseph Raoux, Paris c 1800
Salvatore Lagrassa piano c 1815, Palermo
** Weinerhorn, end of 19th century
jean Baptiste Streicher piano, Vienna, 1847
† Cor solo, Marcel Auguste Raoux, Paris 1823
Julius Blüthner piano, Leipzig 1867
¶ Cor à pistons, Victor Charles Mahillon, Brussels early 20th century
Carl Bechstein piano, Berlin 1898

BIS SACD 2228 | bis.se

Matching four period horns with four period pianos, Alec Frank-Gemmill surveys the 19th-century horn repertoire with an exciting new perspective.  Actually it’s over 100 years of music played on instruments each composer would have recognised, from Beethoven to Gilbert Vinter, with Schumann, Rossini, Franz Strauss, Saint-Saëns, Glazunov and Dukas in between.

Watch five films about the project and each of the four horns here.

Nominated for a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Award

Alec Frank-Gemmill horn
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan conductor

Förster Horn Concerto [No 1] in E flat
Telemann Horn Concerto in D, TWV51:D8
Neruda Horn Concerto No1 in E flat
Leopold  Mozart Sinfonia da Camera (Sinfonie in D major, VII:D5)
Haydn Horn Concerto No 1 in D, Hob.VIId:3

BIS SACD 2315 | bis.se

Alec Frank-Gemmill takes another interesting journey of discovery into early horn repertoire. Imagination, style and virtuosity are his companions, along with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Nicholas McGegan. Composers include Mozart’s father, a neglected Haydn and a Neruda rarity of extreme virtuosity.