Twentieth Century Music for Horn and Piano

Twentieth Century Music for Horn and Piano

Released in May 2021 by Heritage, a new CD brings together for the first time Hindemith's Horn Sonata and Althorn Sonata, Fricker's Horn Sonata, and Nielsen's beautiful short Canto Serioso, together with a collection of 'bonus' items by Eccles, Gwilt, Arnold Cooke and Alan Abbott, all performed by the late Ifor James (horn) and John McCabe (piano). Ifor and John toured extensively, from the early 1960s to the 1980s. Four of the items reissued here - the Hindemith and Fricker Horn Sonatas, the Nielsen and Abbott - were released on LP in 1968. The Hindemith Althorn Sonata, generously donated by Robert Matthew-Walker, was recorded later and has never previously been issued. Neither have the remaining three items, by Eccles, Gwilt and Cooke, which come from a private recording made by Ifor James.

Ifor never really won the accolade in his life-time that his brilliant virtuosity deserved. This tribute, on Heritage HTGCD 164, is issued in his memory.