New Music for E♭ Tenor Horn and String Orchestra
Jeffrey Kaufman (b. 1947)
Essay for E♭ tenor horn and strings (2023)
Tenor Horn Sonata (2023)
Dorothy Gates
Imaginings (2017)
Joseph Turrin (b. 1947)
Romance (2023)
Vespra (2009, arr. 2023)
Traditional
Londonderry Air (arr. for horn and string orchestra by Jeffrey Kaufmann)
Sheona White (E♭ tenor horn), Ron Levy (piano), pick up orchestra/Kyle Ritenauer
rec. 2023, New York City, USA
Phoenix USA PHCD190 [62]
This is the first music I have heard for the E♭ tenor horn outside of its usual place in a British brass band. There it fills the space between the flugel horn and the baritones, sometimes overlapping the tenor trombones. The solo horn in the group often has virtuoso passages to which it is well suited. In concert bands and orchestras the place is taken by the far more familiar French horn. They have a similar name but do not sound the same. As a member of the Saxhorn family it has a lighter tone than the French horn and is not able to project as well. This may account for the lack of soloistic opportunities given it by composers who have often focussed on its lower cousin the Euphonium. Hindemith wrote a sonata for the instrument in 1943 indicating that it could also be played on the alto saxophone. I did listen to it after this cd and it is a very effective work and, like all of his sonatas, fearsomely difficult for both the soloist and the poor pianist.
Sheona White seems to be the leading virtuoso on the instrument and is doing much to encourage its use as a solo instrument. She studied at the University of Salford, the leading centre for the study of brass band music and has performed with many of the main British brass bands Currently she is head of Academic Music at Bolton School Girls Division a private day school in Greater Manchester.
Jeffrey Kaufman is an American composer and entrepreneur and fortunately for Ms. White the founder of this record label. His teachers include Nicolas Flagello and David Diamond. The works on this disc show he learnt well from both. The works are beautifully constructed, melodically attractive, harmonically interesting, and impeccably scored. The ‘Essay’ a three-movement concerto in all but name and the Sonata were both inspired by Ms. White’s playing and they seem perfectly shaped to her skills. Nothing seems too difficult for her to master. She has a beautifully rounded tone in the lyrical sections and a virtuoso command of articulation in the rapid scale and arpeggio passages. The outer movements are vigorous and dynamic, but the heart of the work is the lyrical central ‘Berceuse’ where the horns solo line beautifully floats on a soft carpet of lush string chords. The Sonata is a richly imaginative work for horn and piano that strangely throughout had me thinking of Steven Sondheim. Ms. White certainly has to use the full range of the instrument and she draws some magnificent sounds in the lower register. There is a wonderful interplay between her pianist Ron Levy, who shapes the challenging piano part well.
Dorthy Gates ‘Imaginings’ is an arrangement for tenor horn and strings of a work originally for French horn and piano written in 2017 for Michelle Baker, then recently retired 2nd horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Dorothy Gates is a Belfast born composer now living in the USA. She holds degrees in Composition and Trombone Performance from Queens University Belfast, the University of Michigan, and the University of Salford. Her principal composition teachers were Kevin Volans, George Wilson, Joseph Turrin, and Peter Graham. ‘Imaginings’ is a most impressive work that packs an enormous range of expression into its six minutes duration. It is very much in the sound world of the marvellous band composer Edward Gregson. The piano writing is idiomatically translated to the string orchestra. Largely slow and lyrical with a quick section and coda it is well proportioned and sounds rewardingly challenging to play, and Ms. White does seem to relish a challenge.
Joseph Turrin studied composition at the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music and has had a wide-ranging career working in many genres. His orchestral works have been championed by Kurt Masur and his film scores have been as varied as Norman Mailer’s ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’, and the horror sequel ‘Nightmare on Elm Street 3’! He is nothing if not versatile and like Mr. Kaufman, Mr. Turrin has an impeccable technique and a fertile imagination. The ‘Romance’ was written after hearing a concert given by Ms. White. Originally scored for tenor horn and brass band; the string arrangement was made specifically for this recording. It works very well, though I can imagine it has greater emotional power with brass instruments. It evokes the sound world of Howard Hanson who he would have known and maybe studied with at the Eastman School. Here again, and in ‘Vespera’ which follows, Ms. White is called upon to show her extraordinary lyrical skill and her immaculate breathing technique in the long reaching melodic lines.
The disc finishes with Mr. Kauffman’s luscious arrangement of the well know ‘Londonderry Air’, a work perfectly suited to the timbre of the instrument. The pickup orchestra here as elsewhere on the disc play superbly under Mr. Ritenauer.
It is wonderful to see works recorded so quickly after they were composed. Mr. Kauffman has done a great job in pulling the project together so quickly. He has done a great service highlighting the abilities of this little used instrument and the superb musicianship of Sheona White. Let’s hope more composers take the instrument up.
Paul RW Jackson
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