It’s interesting to hear the stylistic consistency that marks both the teenaged Richard Strauss’ assured, exuberant First Horn Concerto and the aged composer’s Duett-Concertino and Oboe Concerto. These works provide dazzling showcases for the four soloists, all of whom hold distinguished posts in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Principal hornist Dale Clevenger’s broad sonority and faultless intonation in the aforementioned Horn Concerto are complemented by Daniel Barenboim’s fibrous, warmly inflected orchestral framework. It’s quite different from the lithe, classically poised Szell/Cleveland/Myron Bloom collaboration reissued by Sony Masterworks Heritage, and no less valid an interpretation. Too bad there wasn’t room for the Second Horn Concerto. Clevenger is gloriously featured in the Andante for Horn and Piano, with Barenboim at the keyboard.
Back on the podium, Barenboim upholsters the Oboe Concerto with ample rhetoric, adding extra love handles to this buoyant, transparent score. Be that as it may, oboe fans will adore Alex Klein’s suave, dark tone, astounding breath control, and laser-like sense of projection. In the Duett-Concertino, the superb soloists Larry Combs and David McGill sound like they’ve been recorded apart from their orchestral colleagues, only to be dubbed in later. Even if this is not the case, it sure seems as if the soloists and orchestra emerge from different acoustic perspectives, Karaoke-style. Last of all, Barenboim serves us an unexpected yet appropriate lagniappe: two charming character pieces for piano solo from the Stimmungsbilder Op. 9.
