Baborak plays a gorgeous Gliere Horn Concerto

The return of star hornist, the Czech Radek Baborák to the DFP Hall saw him offering an unusual programme pairing of JS Bach, Glière and Dvořák. This time, Baborák’s dual role was conductor as well as solo hornist, whilst he only played the horn under Barry Tuckwell’s direction previously.

This evening was the first in a series of 3 concerts in which a couple of JS Bach Brandenburg Concerti were paired with other works for variety and musical colour. The first Brandenburg Concerto was first up, with the high lying horn parts taken by Grzegorz Curyla and Laurence Davies. Simon Emes, Ruth Bull and Niels Dittmann played the 3 oboe parts, whilst Peter Danis took the charge of the solo violin part.

The performance of the first Brandenburg Concerto was disappointing to say the least. Balance, intonation and ensemble problems persisted throughout the first and third movements especially. The horns often suppressed the oboes and violin in the tonal balance, whilst their high lying parts were not played with conviction, intonational precision and security.

The three oboes acquitted themselves well in the mournful second movement. However, Peter Danis’ violin playing in the third movement also left much to be desired with iffy timing, multiple stopping and intonation issues. Baborak’s tempo for the fourth movement was a touch ponderous and the various episodes here felt overlong and too prolix.

Gliere’s Horn Concerto with Radek Baborak doubling his role as soloist as well as conductor was the next offering. This piece was written for Valeri Polekh, the solo horn player with the Bolshoi Theatre in the 1940/50s. For a piece that was written in that vintage, it was surprisingly very lyrical, tonal and tuneful as well as akin to the melodious Korngold Violin Concerto, Kabalevsky Third Piano Concerto and Richard Strauss Oboe Concerto of the same musical era.

Gliere conceived the idea of treating the horn as a virtuoso instrument in his Horn Concerto, using Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto as a musical model. Baborak was in superb form throughout the concerto, playing with great reserves of power and long sustained legato phrasing in the epic first movement.

The gorgeous creamy and expressivo tones of Baborak’s horn conjured up a dreamy and romantic atmosphere in the second movement, which had an explosive central climax. The high jinks and virtuoso portions of the last movement also did not hold any terrors for Baborak. This gorgeous première performance at the DFP Hall drew loud and thunderous applause from the audience.

To quote some words from Flanders and Swann's Ill Wind (modelled on Mozart's Fourth Horn Concerto), Baborak's superb horn playing gave us a sound, a beautiful sound that is so rich and round. Surely, Baborak must now be one of the world's best and foremost hornists, with a luscious heldentenor-like tone of massive proportions. It would be a dream to see him in KL once again in future, perhaps offering us the Richard Strauss or Mozart Horn Concertos.

In the second half, we were treated to decent performances of Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto, led by Peter Danis in better form than in the first half. Baborak then led a good performance of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony from the podium, with subtle changes of tempi and colour. Nevertheless, it was not an epic performance in the mould of great Czech conductors of the past like Karel Sejna or Rafael Kubelik.