Frédéric Duvernoy
Life and Career
The horn player Frédéric Duvernoy (1765 – 1838) belonged to the founding generation that established the fame of French horn players and passed it on through a school of their own. He was born on 16 October 1765 in Montbéliard and joined the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne as a horn player in 1788. In 1797 he moved to the Paris Opéra, where he served as principal horn from 1799. In 1801 he and other solo wind players were released from regular opera duties so that they could devote themselves more fully to solo work. From then on he performed in the “Chapelle Musique”, which had been re-established by Napoleon Bonaparte, reputedly an admirer of Duvernoy.
From 1795 Duvernoy also taught at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique, alongside up to eight other horn players at times. Several distinct schools of horn playing developed there. The division into first and second horn had long been established. The horn player Rodolphe advocated using the full range of the instrument, while Kenn and, later and above all, Dauprat argued for a clear separation into cor alto and cor basso. Duvernoy quite literally took the middle path: in his published horn method he too distinguished between high and low horn and recommended mouthpieces of different sizes, but as a soloist he promoted the “cor mixte”. This meant giving up the very highest and lowest notes. Players rarely left the middle register (about one and a half octaves) and placed greater emphasis on a singing tone.
Duvernoy retired in 1816 but remained principal horn of the Chapelle Musique until 1830. He died in Paris on 19 July 1838. His works, including twelve horn concertos and numerous chamber pieces, were published not only in Paris but also in Germany by Simrock, Breitkopf and other publishers.
Horn Concerto No. 5
Horn Concerto No. 5 dates from around 1800 and lies comfortably in the middle register. The flautist François Devienne (1759 – 1803), a fellow orchestral musician of Duvernoy, was involved in this concerto.
I. Allegro