In the autumn of last year I gave great praise to Hermann Baumann's remastered Teldec recording of the four Mozart horn concertos, played with astonishing skill on a hand horn, with every note (even the chromatics) in tune. His performances confound those authenticists who insist on offering recordings of baroque music with horrid horn playing, all out of tune, when obviously it is possible for a skilful player to manipulate his primitive instrument and avoid painfully off-pitch harmonics. Now Baumann has re-recorded the concertos using a modern instrument. He has the advantage of the most delectably polished accompaniments from the St Paul Chamber Orchestra under Zukerman and his technique remains enviably assured. He produces a broad stream of richly lyrical tone on his wide-bore German instrument, and the sound as caught by the engineers is bigger than that of Alan Civil (Philips), for instance. The new performances are warmly expressive and always musical, but their touches of light and shade are not always so imaginative as those of Alan Civil (or indeed Barry Tuckwell on Decca, whose new recordings are due for release on LP shortly—at the time of writing they are only available separately on CD—411 284-2DH, 11/84). The Romanza of K495 is pressed on a fraction too strongly—Civil is more melting here, though Baumann retains his poise in the Larghetto of K447, which is beautifully phrased. He is especially good in the Rondos, robust and vigorous with attractively crisp articulation.
The finest performance overall is K417, where the delightfully pointed playing of the orchestra is obviously infectious and solo playing and accompaniment form an engaging mirror image. In the finale of K412 (as on his Teldec record) Baumann produces a cadenza which includes horn chords, where several notes are produced simultaneously by resonating the instrument's harmonics—an uncanny effect. All in, all these positive performances offer much to enjoy, even if Baumann's earlier versions are a more fascinating achievement. The Philips sound is far preferrable to the earlier set.'