Horns often hunted in pairs during the 18th century. The presence of a number of horn-playing duos in Europe’s major musical centres led to a cornucopia of concertos and chamber works by composers eager to exploit the abilities of these virtuosos. One such pair were Joseph Alois Anton Zwierzina and John Nagel, resident at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein and the recipients of a number of double concertos by the likes of Friedrich Witt – an exact contemporary of Beethoven and a likely composer of the notorious Jena Symphony.

Nagel specialised in high-lying writing for the instrument, Zwierzina in its lower register – parts adopted on the Naxos album by Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdelewicz, stepping out from their day to-day roles in the horn section of the Buffalo Philharmonic. There’s plenty to exploit these facets of the cornist’s art in the concertos by Witt and Franz Anton Hoffmeister – a prolific composer better known now as Mozart’s publisher and creditor. Lyrical lines for the soloists in thirds and sixths alternate with passages of breathtaking virtuosity, especially in vaulting accompanimental figures for the secondo player. Slow movements are often designated ‘Romance’, while finales habitually exploit the hunting associations of the horn. František Xaver Pokorný, too, resided at Oettingen and wrote his less outgoing (but still fearsomely challenging) concerto for a later pair, Friedrich Domnich and Johann Türrschmidt. Leopold Mozart’s much earlier work is in a terser, less developed style but boasts the sort of melodic gestures that were later to crop up over and over again in his son’s far better-known music.

Muzyk and Kerdelewicz are every bit the modern-day counterparts to these 18th-century virtuosos, and their Buffalo colleagues play with a lightness of touch if lacking a little refinement. On the Aparté album Bart Aerbeydt and Gijs Laceulle go a step further in their ‘hunt for Romanticism’, playing on natural horns, exulting in the tonal inconsistencies and discontinuities endemic to the valveless instrument. Antonio Rosetti was also associated with the Oettingen court; his double concerto was long attributed to one or other Haydn and seems to have set a template for this type of piece with its deeply expressive central Romance and boisterous, outdoorsy closing Rondo. Leopold Mozart’s Concerto demonstrates the difference in approach between the gregarious Freiburg Baroque players and the politer, more restrained Buffalo band, and two trios of duos by Mozart fils and Heinrich Simrock (brother of Nikolaus, Beethoven’s publisher) are charming palate-cleansers between the larger works. The highlight, though, is Beethoven’s Sextet for two horns and string quartet. What a joy to hear the two natural horns running through their entire repertoire of sounds and effects, singing, braying, leaping, grumbling, wheedling and snarling in this early but already entirely characteristic work. Both albums are welcome and enjoyable but for the full range and theatricality of 18th-century horn-playing, the Freiburg collection is a winner.