Volume 2 - Cor et Harpe with Georges Barboteu
Logo by Martha Blanks
For this installment of Horn on Record, we are exploring a recording that features repertoire for a unique and versatile chamber combination – horn and harp!
Our second album review, Cor et Harpe, features performers Georges Barboteu on horn and Lily Laskine on harp – both exemplars of the French aesthetic and tradition. While the album was released on the French label Erato, an actual recording date is not listed or cataloged. The educated assumption is that this recording was made in the early 1970’s.
I have some familiarity with the music for horn and harp thanks again to my former teacher, Sören Hermansson. Not only did he record two wonderful CDs with harpist Erica Goodman that include some of the works on this record particular record by Barboteu, but also many more 20th century works as well. I was fortunate to hear Sören perform music from these recordings in live recital performances too!
Returning our focus to Barboteu’s record, it includes selections by the well-known hornists and composers Louis-François Dauprat and Frédéric Duvernoy, and two pieces by a lesser known composer, Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. Significantly, this is the first recording of any of these pieces, and it is the first recording of any repertoire for horn and harp!
Bochsa was a contemporary of Dauprat and lived in Paris from 1807-1817. He would have undoubtedly known Dauprat through their shared years at the Conservatoire de Paris. Bochsa was a concert harpist and prolific composer, with a catalog of over four hundred opus numbers. In 1813 he was appointed as harpist to the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and later, in 1816, as the private harpist for King Louis XVIII. However, according to Grove Music Dictionary: “Bochsa had been developing a lucrative business in forged documents of various kinds, and in 1817 he was compelled to leave the country. On 17 February 1818 the Paris Court of Assize condemned him, in his absence, to 12 years’ imprisonment with a fine of 4000 francs, and to be branded with the letters ‘T.F.’ (‘travaux forcés’, or forced labour – the standard penalty for forgers).” Bochsa had already fled to London to avoid this punishment! His career as a harpist, composer, and conductor flourished there and he later helped to found the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1821.
Our hornist in this recording, Georges Barboteu (1926-2006), was the son of Joseph Barboteu, a professional hornist and professor at the Conservatoire d’Algiers. At nine years old, Georges began studies with his father and later played alongside him in both the Grand Casino in Biarritz, France and the Radio Orchestra of Algiers. Georges then entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1950, winning both the Premiere Prix and the Geneva International Competition in quick succession.
Georges Barboteu held many prestigious appointments, including the solo horn chairs of the Opéra Comique and the Orchestre de Paris. He was horn professor at the Conservatoire de Paris for twenty years and a founding member of the Quintette Ars Nova.
We are indebted to Barboteu not just for his consummate artistry in performing and teaching, but also for his contributions to the hornist’s repertoire. He wrote several etude books and composed over forty pieces for both solo horn and horn in combination with other instruments. His recording catalog is extensive and includes a range of concerti and chamber repertoire.
Frequently featured at symposia of the International Horn Society, Barboteu was a member of the Advisory Council from 1976-1979 and recognized as an Honorary Member in 1998.
As a chamber music pairing, horn and harp were a very popular combination for salon music in the early 19th century. The clear and rhythmic articulation of the harp strings, along with the rich and diffuse resonance of its sound, knits seamlessly with the horn. Of course, in the era of these compositions, it was the veiled and varied tones of the natural horn which would have balanced both melodically and texturally with the harp.
In the Allegro assai from Duvernoy’s Duexième Nocturne, we hear the harp’s present and effective plucked articulations and chords, and how these textures provide clarity for the soft articulations of the horn:
In Duaprat’s marvelous Air Écossais Varié, Op. 22, Barboteu plays with arching lyricism across the phrases and ends with delicate rubato:
Barboteu’s bel canto style and subtle portamento are beautifully captured in the Andante varié from Dauprat’s Sonate pour Harpe avec accompagnement de cor obligé, Op. 3:
Lastly, the lilting melody composed by N.C. Bochsa in his Fantasie, Op. 72 allows Barboteu to showcase his vocal vibrato and dynamic control across phrases:
Thank you for reading of Horn on Record!