An inspiring performance! Whether Hindemith imagined a different alto tuba sound or not, the two of you made so much music out of this neglected piece! I'm working on it now on 4 valve flugelhorn, which is probably against the will of Hindemith, God, and civil decency, but it's satisfying to learn.
Thank you both for this wonderful performance of a rather neglected work. Nice reading of Hindemith’s poems - they came across clearly. I think the work was originally written for Althorn in Eb, though so far I have not heard it played on that instrument. It sounded great on the French horn.
I love that you included all the movements (I don't want to spoil what will likely be a surprise for most). If I may offer a suggestion: You'd probably got a lot of extra views if you were to include something in the description about how the piece can also be played on saxophone. I don't know how standard a part of the horn repertoire this is, but it's very commonly played by classical saxophonists, especially students. (That said, I think it's much better suited to the horn.) Oh, and the title (as I'm sure you know) should say "Sonata," not "Concerto."
Where's the Eb horn? This work was written for an oddball Eb horn that I've never been able to find, except in photos of Hindemith holding the instrument in question. I think it may have been a one-off. There was a horrible rendition of this work on LP many years ago by a "French" horn player playing a Saxhorn using a "French" horn mouthpiece with an adaptor. Horn players used to gush about it, but it was an awful-sounding mess. There were plenty of alto/tenor Eb Saxhorn players around who could have done a far superior job. Regardless, this work wasn't written for the althorn or the alto Saxhorn or the Horn. It had been performed a number of times on an Eb Cernvey "circular alto horn", an instrument designed by a Frenchman named M. Ligner in the 19th century, often mistaken for a mellophone. The Horn unfortunately doesn't capture the sound Hindemith was aiming for through an Eb althorn. The closest you're going to get is an Eb alto/tenor Saxhorn. The "French" horn's range characteristics aren't suited to this piece.
@@montonej An acquaintance and I were finally able to identify the horn Hindemith specified for this sonata. Here's a photo of Hindemith playing the horn in question: www.hindemith.info/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_W-5-3-1-Fluegelhorn-New-Haven_4015ea32cb.jpg As a collector I've never once come across one like it. But thanks to an acquaintance we've identified the horn as a bell-forward Eb alto tuba which was manufactured in the 1920's and 1930's. They were only made for a short time (the photo was taken in the 1950's), the only ones in existence are in the hands of collectors (sadly not me). Not all is lost! There are plenty of Eb alto tubas around, including those made by Cerveny (who patented the design in 1853) and St Petersburg (the monopoly under the USSR that appropriated the design). Today they're made by too many companies to list. www.jimlaabsmusicstore.com/store/v-f-cerveny-model-cah-511-eb-alto-horn/ There are plenty of these horns, new and old, on eBay. I picked up a pair of old USSR St Petersburgs for $75 each. These horns are easy to play . . . badly. You can't approach them from an Eb alto horn standpoint (Eb alto/tenor Saxhorn). They're a tuba, not a Saxhorn, and play and perform differently. The original 1850's horns came with a much larger mouthpiece than is used today. I had one custom made (22.00 mm cup diameter), with the result that the horn performs like a high Eb euphonium, which it essentially is. There's really no such thing as a euphonium. It's really a large-bore Bb tenor tuba. "Euphonium" is really just a layman's term. The workers at both the Cerveny and St Petersburg factories call these instruments "tubas".
