Anton Teyber (1756–1822)
Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major for Horn and Orchestra
(2 violins, viola, bass, 2 horns, 2 oboes)
First edition
This first edition is based on the autograph score held by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (shelfmark VIII 15.274). It follows the Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major for horn, which was already published in 1974 as a first edition by Doblinger in Vienna, edited by Friedrich Gabler.
In the score manuscript the second concerto bears the original title “Concerto per il Corno da Caccia”, a common designation at the time that was also used for the natural horn. The solo part, notated in E-flat, rises to c3. This was entirely normal for high horn players of the period and is also required in most of W. A. Mozart's concertos. In this respect the second concerto differs from the first, whose solo part goes up to a notated g3; because of this extreme height it was taken up by only a few horn soloists.
When and for whom this concerto was written can only be surmised, as with the first. Harmonically, the work frequently uses notes foreign to the natural harmonic series, so-called hand-stopped notes. This points to a well-developed natural-horn technique after 1780. Various soloists come into question, such as Joseph Leutgeb (1732–1811) or Jacob Eisen (1756–1796) of Vienna, to name only a few.
Anton Teyber was a friend of W. A. Mozart, and the style of composition lets one sense Mozart's proximity. In both the first and the second horn concerto, Teyber even quotes from the Horn Quintet K. 407 and the Horn Concerto K. 495.
Audio sample: Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major