Hoffmeister, Franz Anton - Concerto in Dis for Horn

Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812)

Concerto in E-flat (Dis) for Horn and Orchestra

– First Edition –

To learn more about Hoffmeister’s life, read the biography at french-horn.net.

Hoffmeister’s Works with Solo Horn

• The number of Hoffmeister’s works with solo horn cannot be stated exactly. His two concertos for 2 horns and orchestra (first editions as ROM 27 and ROM 28) were written around 1792 in Vienna. According to their titles, they were composed for the Wallerstein hornists Nagel and Zwierzina; one of the two quotes Mozart’s Horn Concerto K. 495 several times. Another concerto in E major for 2 horns was found in the estate of the hornist Josef Suttner (1881–1974); the copy bears the year 1783.
• Besides several quintets for horn and string quartet, Hoffmeister’s oeuvre includes a concerto for 3 horns, which was performed in 1780 by the hornists Steinmüller (who were employed at Esterházy under Haydn). It was heard in Leipzig and Magdeburg in 1801. The only known copy burned in 1944 during a bombing raid on Darmstadt. Only a copy of the middle movement survives, which was published for the first time as ROM 35.
• Supplement Volume XV of the Leipzig music publisher Breitkopf, covering the years 1782, 1783 and 1784, lists a concerto in D major, which Breitkopf offered as a manuscript copy. This concerto has been edited as ROM 282.
• Another concerto, in E major for horn and orchestra, was found in the music department of the Berlin State Library and was first published as ROM 150 by Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition.

The Present Concerto

The present concerto in E-flat major (Dis) was found as a copy in the monastery of Osek in northern Bohemia. It is written for a Corno secundo principale, so it avoids very high notes and shows its virtuosity rather in the middle and low registers. It is edited here for the first time.

Audio sample: Concerto in E-flat for Horn