. . .or click on the link here for Audio Player – Koechlin: Poème for French Horn and Orchestra – ORTF Orchestra – Manuel Rosenthal, Conductor – circa 1957 – Gordon Skene Sound collection.
Finishing up the radio session we began a few weeks ago featuring the music of Charles Koechlin as performed around 1957 by the French Radio Orchestra (ORTF Orchestra) led by Manuel Rosenthal.
The Poème for French Horn and Orchestra dates from 1927. Sadly, there is no listing for the French horn soloist – it’s assumed to be a principal player for the orchestra at the time. But this is the style of playing that existed with all French Orchestras, most Spanish Orchestras and some Russian Orchestras all the way until the late 1960s – a lyrical, poetic (some say pungent) playing which has been all but abandoned by most all French Horn players today. No particular good reason, and I’ve never gotten a logical answer for the style to be so quickly dropped as it was.
But a reminder of what some orchestras and what some soloists used to sound like.
Enjoy.
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