Notes and Editorial Reviews
DIALOGUES EN FRANÇAIS
•
Bernhard Scully (hn); Joanne Minnetti (pn)
•
ALBANY 1321 (61:36)
BOZZA
En Forêt.
GOUNOD
6 Mélodies.
FRANÇAIX
Canon in Octave.
DUKAS
Villanelle.
POULENC
Elegy in Memory of Dennis Brain.
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SAINT-SAËNS
Morceau de Concert.
MARAIS
Le Basque
Bernhard Scully is the horn professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a faculty member of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp and the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute as a member of the Summit Brass. He has also been on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West and the Eastman School of Music, and was previously a member of the famed Canadian Brass, with which he gave numerous performances and made many CDs. This appears to be his solo CD debut.
One of the more interesting aspects of this disc is that his accompanist, Joanne Minnetti, is Scully’s mother. On the back cover of the CD booklet, Scully exults that he and his mother “have been making music together for three decades, since I was three years old.” The synergy between them is obvious from the very first selection, the energetic and fascinating
En Forêt
of Eugène Bozza, with its bravura horn passages and barely contained excitement. Scully’s horn is very well recorded, and he gets a bright, open sound on his instrument, a little rough in timbre on some notes but generally superb. He also has a great low range, which is not common to all horn players.
The leisurely, relaxed, and at times uninteresting
Mélodies
of Gounod come next. Scully plays them very well, but there’s not much to them as music. These are followed by the humorous
Canon in Octave
by Françaix, in which the horn trails the piano melody one beat behind. As Scully puts it in the notes, “Just as the listener is becoming accustomed to the wry tightness of the tune, the piece ends.”
Dukas’s famed
Villanelle
comes next. In one review of a Scully concert, he was described as sounding more like Barry Tuckwell than Dennis Brain, but that may have been due to his great technical command of playing triplets, which was a Tuckwell specialty. Here he sounds very Brain-like, both his tone and phrasing coming very close to the legendary horn player’s famous 1952 recording of this piece with pianist Gerald Moore. Scully further explores the warm yet bright qualities of his predecessor’s style in his version of the Poulenc elegy for Brain. Scully and Minnetti build this performance in such a way that the listener is completely drawn in and almost forced to participate in the ongoing musical drama. The sad ending, formed as a 12-tone row, nevertheless manages to end on a tonic note.
Scully also gives us a warm, relaxed performance of Saint-Saëns’s
Morceau de Concert,
a much more interesting composition than the Gounod suite. Then, almost as an encore, he plays Marin Marais’s famous
Le Basque,
which was also a famous showpiece for Dennis Brain, and his version is very nearly as good as his model’s.
I am completely enchanted with Scully’s CD recital, and I think you will be, too. This one is a winner.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
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Works on This Recording
1.
En forêt, Op. 40 by Eugène Bozza
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1941; France
2.
Mélodies (6) for Horn and Piano by Charles Gounod
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: circa 1840-1848; France
3.
Canon à l'octave for Horn and Piano by Jean Françaix
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1953; France
4.
Villanelle for Horn and Piano by Paul Dukas
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1911; France
5.
Elégie for Horn and Piano by Francis Poulenc
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1957; France
Notes: Subtitled: "In Memory of Dennis Brain".
6.
Morceau de concert for Horn and Orchestra in F minor, Op. 94 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1887; France
Notes: Arranged for Horn and Piano.
7.
Vielles danses françaises (5): no 5, Le Basque by Marin Marais
Performer:
Bernhard Scully (Horn),
Joanne Minnetti (Piano)
Period: Baroque
Written: Paris, France
Sound Samples
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 1. Le premier jour de mai, "Chanson de mai"
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 2. O ma belle rebelle
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 3. Aubade
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 4. Chant d'automne
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 5. Le lever
6 Melodies (arr. D. Bourgue): No. 6. Venise
Elegie for Horn and Piano, FP 168
Morceau de concert, Op. 94 (arr. for horn and piano)
5 Old French Dances (arr. for horn and piano): 5 Old French Dances: No. 5. Le Basque (arr. for horn and piano)
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