News

An American's View

2008-08-18T19:49:00-06:00

David McCormick writes of his introduction to The Russian Horn Capella:

We took the overnight train to Saint Petersburg [from Moscow]. Upon arrival, Sergey Peschansky appeared at our compartment, took us in hand and saw that we got settled into the hotel. Mr. Peschansky is a horn player by profession. After a twenty-five year career in the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet Orchestra, he had decided to find a new challenge, which led him in 2001 to revive the Saint Petersburg Horn Cappella, a unique ensemble. It had existed under the Czars from 1751 to the early nineteenth century, and had gone dormant for two centuries. Seventeen professional musicians each play two to five instruments (a total of seventy-two for the full ensemble) ranging in size from 3.94 inches (10 cm) to 8 feet 2.5 inches (2.5 m). Each instrument is a copper cone, with no cylindrical portion, which creates a unique sound, not that of our modern orchestra horn. Since each can produce only pitches of the overtone series, diatonic passages require separate instruments for each pitch (like a handbell choir). Yet the repertoire ranges widely, including fast passages. The smallest instruments sound like a cross between a brass instrument and zinke, the largest like something between an organ pipe and a baritone or bass saxophone. The conductor, Dmitry Russo, kindly came to our hotel and shepherded me to rehearsal. At intermission, I visited the shop that exists solely to make and maintain these instruments. After decades of having seen history book pictures of the Czar’s Russian Horn Band as a singular historical event, I was amazed to see and hear it in person.

David C. McCormick, a band director and university adminstrator, was a Founder and Vice President of the United States National Band Association. He and his wife Connie live in Fort Myers, Florida.

Exoticness and Delight

2007-01-14T14:26:00-06:00

Russian Horn Cappella Captivates Audience at Bernharduskirche

By Karl-Heinz Fischer, The newspaper Badische Neuesk Nachrichten
17. October 2006

"There can hardly be a more exotic and delightful concert than the evening with the Russian Horn Cappella. 14 musicians are standing on the choir platform at Bernharduskirche, each with one to five horns in hand. It is impossible to recognize at first glance familiar horns in these instruments since they are just slightly tapered conical tubes of copper and metal with mouthpieces. Such an instrument is unique in that it can play only a single tone. It seems almost incredible that an ensemble of such horns with lengths ranging from a dozen centimeters to two and a half meters could play any melodies at all, to say nothing about real orchestral pieces. Yet it really can, which the amazed audience could see for themselves. The musicians from St. Petersburg have in their repertoire a large variety of classic works, including compositions by such greatest masters in the history of music as Henry Purcell, Gioacchino Rossini, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Johannes Brahms, Carl Maria von Weber, Camille Saint-Saёns and Richard Strauss.The original sounding of this orchestra resembles to a certain extent only an organ, especially when low horns produce their sonorous sound. The fact that each of the instruments can play a single tone adds to the sounding of classic works some special dynamics characteristic of the Russian horn orchestra since the chords, when played together on the instruments spatially separated from each other, create a slightly oscillating sound pattern which, supported by the acoustics of the church, can grow into a real fullness and unity of sounds.
The repertoire of the Russian Horn Cappella is very large and encompasses, along with classics, Russian traditional and church music, as well as popular music such as the brilliantly performed song Funiculi, funicula. And this fully corresponds to the tradition of the Russian horn orchestra. As the soloist and the presenter Hermann Baumann explained in his free and witty comments, this tradition does not only go back to the Russian lifestyle of the late-19th century, but it is also part of the musical tradition of a folk origin.
Strictly following this tradition, the performance by the musicians primarily featured heartiness and reflected the joy of music playing while academic seriousness was hardly present in it. The enthusiasm of the musicians can be seen by the fact that, according to Baumann, after a break of 150 years, in 2002, they for the first time revived the once popular horn orchestral music, made their instruments with their own hands and presented them to the public. Baumann himself was not that busy with his instrument. He played his solos which consisted of more than one tone and naturally he played them on a modern horn. For an hour and a half the audience could delight in the magnificent sounding of the exotic instruments. The Russian Horn Cappella thanked the audience with numerous encores.

(photo: The musicians from St. Petersburg impress the audience at Bernharduskirche with magnificent sounds.)

A Great Friendship

2007-01-12T21:02:00-06:00

Hermann Baumann and the Russian Horn Capella orchestra delighted the audience at their concert in the church on Central Square.

By Namalie Vishvabharatha, Kettwig NRZ Stadtteil - Zeitung
17. October 2006

« Hermann Baumann and the Russian Horn Capella orchestra have invited all residents of Kettwig to a special musical delight. The German hornist Hermann Baumann first met with the Russian Horn Cappella in St. Petersburg during one of his tours. That meeting resulted in a great friendship. Herr Baumann and the Russian Horn Cappella are currently on a concert tour around Germany and France. »

« The horn orchestra is unique in that each of its players can make just a single tone with his horn. Yet the 18 different horns playing together can perform any musical piece. The first horn orchestra was set up by the Czech Jan Mares in 1751. Very quickly the horn orchestra music became popular, especially with the nobility of St. Petersburg. In Russia the horn orchestras used to take part in all significant events. However, the appearance of the modern French horns quite quickly made the natural horns sink into oblivion.

2002 saw the first concert of the Russian Horn Capella in St. Petersburg. It proved that the horn orchestra can still enthrall people as before.

The residents of Kettwig could experience this delight last Tuesday when Hermann Baumann and fourteen players of the horn orchestra were playing in the crowded church on Central Square. The program of the concert included not only known pieces such as the famous Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 but also Russian traditional songs.

The audience was enraptured and the final piece of the concert ended to the thunderous applause which did not subside even after an encore. After a second encore the musicians intended to leave but the audience did not let them go and made them play a third encore. In the end the residents of Kettwig were unanimous in that the concert was really “indescribable” and “could have continued even longer”. »

(photo: The Russian Horn Capella and Professor Hermann Baumann at the Evangelical Church on Central Square)