Elizabeth Raum - Quartet for Horns

Recorded in January 2021 for sound festival (www.sound-scotland.co.uk). With thanks to Elizabeth Raum and Cherry Classics Music Publishing (www.cherryclassics.com).

I. Fanfare: Allegretto con brio

II. Andante con moto

III. Scherzo

IV. Echoes

Horns: Lauren Reeve-Rawlings, Ian Smith, Stephanie Jones, Andy Saunders

Sound: Sam McErlean

Film: Lewis Landini

Elizabeth Raum’s Quartet for Four Horns was written at the request of horn player Kurt Kellan, who had been a colleague in the Regina Symphony Orchestra. Premiered by the Canadian Horn Quartet at the 1998 International Horn Society summit in Banff, Canada, the quartet is a tour-de-force of the quartet repertoire.

The four movement work opens with a powerful fanfare. There is a moto perpetual feel comes and goes throughout the latter half of the movement - an impressive feat for this instrument! The second movement opens in a reflective mood, which gives way to a full blooded statement of the theme, before returning to a more meditative feel. The Scherzo movement requires some serious dexterity from the players, before a moment of calm (which references the ‘lost hedgehog’ movement from Janáček’s Concertino) leads into a cadenza, which is shared between the quartet. The final movement builds gradually, with a pastoral feel which brings to mind the landscape around Banff.