Since winning the BBC Young Musician Brass Final in 2016, Ben Goldscheider has become a leading proponent of the instrument. His new project continues this legacy and marks the centennial of the legendary horn player Dennis Brain.

Sarah Baker: Your new album ‘Legacy’ is dedicated to the work of Dennis Brain. What can you tell us about the musician, and the impact he had?

Ben Goldscheider: Born on the 17th May 1921, Dennis Brain was an enormously influential British Horn player. He can be attributed as the sole figure of the early to mid-twentieth century who strove to emancipate the horn from its orchestral function to that of a respected solo instrument. Indeed, reviews at the time of his role as principal horn of the Philharmonia, and of course his numerous solo appearances, show that his playing was simply at a level that was unparalleled by other players.

SB: Do you remember when you first heard Dennis Brain? How did he influence you? 

BG: My first contact with Dennis Brain, as I suspect is the case with many horn players all over the world, was through his magnificent recordings of the Mozart Horn Concertos under Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia. To this day, they remain a benchmark for style, class, nuance and technique. It was in these recording sessions that a very famous historical anecdote was born. During one of the sessions, Maestro Karajan went over to Brain to check a detail in his part, only to be rather shocked to find that in place of the music was a motor car magazine!

Being a British horn player after this death is to understand the essence of horn playing under his magnificent aura and legacy. He has inspired me hugely and encouraged me to be daring, to push the boundaries of what is possible on the instrument and really given me the motivation to increase the repertoire through working with contemporary composers. Perhaps a quality that is seldom talked about is how humble he was. Given his star status and A list circle of friends, he was by all accounts an extremely modest and down to earth person that put the needs of the music before all else. Despite all of the wonderful things he achieved in his tragically short life, to do it with this attitude is perhaps the most admirable aspect of it all.

SB: Brain had many strong relationships with composers, who feature on this recording. What can you tell us about these relationships?

BG: Brain’s collaborations with composers really lies at the heart of this album. Due to his huge popularity as a result of his extraordinarily high level of skill, many composers wanted to write works for him, and many did so without even being asked! As such, works by Benjamin Britten, Sir Malcolm Arnold, Edwin York Bowen, Paul Hindemith, Alan Bush, Gordon Jacob, Lennox Berkeley and Ernest Tomlinson, to name but a few, were written especially for him. Arguably the most fruitful collaboration was with Benjamin Britten who of course wrote the exceptional Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and the Canticle III, Still falls the rain (featured on this album) with Dennis Brain in mind.

SB: How did you choose which pieces to feature on the recording? Did you collaborate with other horn players?

BG: With this album, what I wanted to do was create a programme that encapsulated the legacy of Dennis Brain. In this respect I chose: two works by composers that he worked with, Sir Malcolm Arnold and Benjamin Britten; two works written in his memory by Francis Poulenc and Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies; and then, in a homage to his efforts with regards new music, two new pieces that were written especially for this album, commissioned by Guild of Hornplayers. There is a wonderful fragment for four horns and strings by Benjamin Britten, written in memory of Dennis Brain, that remains unfinished and this, had I had the opportunity, would have facilitated a nice collaboration with other horn players. Given that the entire album was conceived, written (in the case of the Watkins) and recorded during the lockdown, it is a small miracle that we could have three of us making music in the same hall!

SB: You have said you felt that Brain changed the course of history, awakening the horn from a long slumber. Why is it, do you think, that the horn was “asleep”? And do you feel it’s still the case today? Is it an issue of repertoire, perhaps?

BG: Well, I think it was primarily due to the players that were around at any given time. If we look at the works we have by Mozart and Beethoven, they were written for exceptional musicians that the composers knew and had contact with. This is also true of course for Richard Strauss. His father was one of the foremost players of his time and therefore we have two fantastic concertos for horn. There cannot have been a similar figure inspiring the likes of Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Dvorak, for example, to write significant solo works for the horn. My hope is that my efforts today will fight against a similar black hole of solo repertoire in the history of the instrument’s repertoire.

SB: You commissioned two new works by Roxana Panufnik and Huw Watkins for this project. What can you tell us about the new pieces?

BG: I first met Roxanna Panufnik via the magic of social media. Four or five years ago we were put in touch by a mutual friend who had made the connection that we both had bronchiectasis, a rare lung condition.. In fact, bronchiectasis was the reason that I started to play the horn because my lung function at the age of six years old was only 50%. Panufnik and I had many conversations about this illness and therefore when the Guild of Hornplayers gave me the opportunity to approach two composers, I immediately thought of her because of this existing connection but also due to the incredible music she writes. Panufnik has beautifully transcribed and arranged three songs onto the horn, with highly lyrical writing which works extremely well on the instrument and really utilises this aspect of technique.

With the Watkins Lament, the story is a touch different and this piece was written specifically for me and the album. The work is not just a reflection on the legacy of Dennis Brain, but has become a Lament for all things lost, having been composed during the first lockdown period.In this context, the work takes an ever more powerful meaning, and the climactic moments really convey a true sense of pain and anguish.

SB: You end the disc with Maxwell-Davies’ “Fanfare Salute to Dennis Brain”, a fitting way to finish the album. What do you hope people will remember about this record, and take from it?

BG: I hope Dennis Brain would agree that the most important message of this album is to celebrate and recognise the horn as a solo instrument. In paying tribute to Dennis Brain, I hope to acknowledge, in his centenary year, the extraordinary role he played in conveying this message and how every horn player of the last 100 years owes him something in this respect. I also hope that in pairing the familiar with the new, people embrace the contemporary element of the album and enjoy listening to music of our time.

SB: Where have you spent the lockdown over the last year, and how has the experience affected you? What do you look forward to most about getting back to live concerts?

BG: As I was back in the UK in March 2020 for some concerts, I ended up spending the entire lockdown (until now) with my family just outside of London. Given that normally I was living and studying in Berlin, this was rather a huge change in many respects but also provided some really positive elements. I was given the keys to the local church and so over the last year I have had a rather unique practice space and have used that to my advantage. Where possible, I have travelled for concerts and projects and am eternally grateful that I had these few drops in the ocean to keep me going both physically with the instrument and also mentally. I think that fundamentally the thing that we all strive for the most is the interaction with other people. Concerts provide the perfect setting for this and I just cannot wait to be in a hall, sharing this wonderful artform with other people. The interaction between human beings in a live setting is not even remotely comparable to streaming, despite its many advantages.

SB: Do you have any other recordings in the pipeline?

BG: As I was researching this album I came across two pieces by Alan Bush that were premiered by Dennis Brain and Benjamin Britten at the Wigmore Hall in the same concert as the Canticle III by Britten. Remarkably to this day they remain unrecorded and so, along with the Guild of Hornplayers, we will be rectifying this very shortly. As well as this, I will release my first concerto album in September with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Lee Reynolds, concerti by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Ruth Gipps and a brand new concerto written for me by the German composer Christoph Schönberger.

Ben Goldscheider’s recording, Legacy, will be released on 14th May 2021 on Three Worlds Records.

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