Johann Andreas Kellner

Concerto in D for Solo Horn, 2 Flutes and Strings

Johann Andreas Kellner was born on 9 August 1724 in Gräfenroda. From the age of five he studied keyboard with his brother Johann Peter Kellner (1705–1772). On 30 August 1748 he was appointed organist at Molsdorf, near Arnstadt. Some time later he apparently went to Berlin, where he learned to play the Waldhorn (natural horn) with the court horn player Hözel, who was in the service of the Margrave Carl as a horn player. During his time in Berlin, Kellner attended numerous operas and concerts, broadened his musical education and associated with “the best masters of music”. He later returned to Molsdorf. In 1772 he became town organist in Gotha, and from 1782 he was court organist at the Gotha court. A concert in Leipzig is documented for 1783. Johann Andreas Kellner died in Gotha on 16 August 1785.

Kellner's horn concerto was advertised in the Breitkopf catalogue of 1784.

This edition is based on a score copy from the Becker Collection, now held under shelfmark PM III.11.58 in the Music Library of the Leipzig City Libraries (Stadtbibliotheken Leipzig).

Kellner's work can be compared with Neruda's concerto for corno. Written at about the same time and for corno principale, both pieces are notable for their extreme height for a horn player. Today Neruda's concerto is performed almost exclusively by trumpeters, on the trumpet or the corno da caccia. However, horn tutors from around 1800 show that playing in this register on the horn was indeed practised. By 1783, though, the heyday of this clarino style of playing had already passed: some 50 years earlier, such high passages appear frequently in the horn solos of works by Zelenka, Heinichen, Graun, Bach and many others.

To make the work accessible today, a B-flat part for corno da caccia (trumpet) is included alongside the original horn part in D.

Listen (1st movement):

More information about the Kellner family: www.johann-peter-kellner.de