Annette Betanski - In the Twilight: Romantic Music for Soprano, Horn and Piano (2001/2020)

This recital of music for soprano, horn, and piano includes several transcriptions, particularly works that originally used cello, but a surprising number were specifically written for this ensemble. The best known is Schubert's sublime Auf dem Strom, but there are also songs by Richard Strauss, Berlioz, Franz Paul Lachner, Arnold Cooke, and a set of folk song arrangements by Havelock Nelson. The combination of voice, horn, and piano is an especially euphonious one, so it's wonderful to find that it has this large a repertoire, including the transcriptions. The late nineteenth century songs, by Strauss, Massenet, and Gounod are especially attractive. Nelson's Four Irish Songs are idiomatically written and melodically memorable. Arnold Cooke's cycle Nocturne is thematically related to Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings. It's an attractive piece, but his settings lack the distinctiveness and variety of Britten's. Soprano Annette Betanski's voice is not large or sumptuous, and the recording acoustic doesn't do her any favors, but her tone is pure, her technique is secure, and she is fully invested in these songs. James Sommerville, principal horn of the Boston Symphony plays with warm tone, finesse, and absolute confidence, but he also has a restraint where some of these songs call for more abandon. Pianist Rena Sharon's accompaniments are sensitive, and she plays attentiveness to the soloists. The CD should be of interest to fans of the horn in chamber music and of Romantic vocal music.