Horn player steps into limelight

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Publication title: Star, The

Jacobs will perform as soloist in German late Romantic composer Richard Strauss’ youthful, energetic and fiendishly difficult French Horn Concerto No.1 this Saturday, at Dunedin Town Hall, in the DSO’s ‘‘Beethoven, Brahms and Strauss’’ concert

Regarded as one of the most technically demanding of all French horn concertos, the 20-minute, three-movement Strauss concerto alternates ‘‘super fast’’ virtuosic passages in its two fast movements, with a ‘‘slow and lovely’’ central movement.

‘‘It’s a real challenge to play a piece like this on the French horn, because the instrument is not really built to do what we need to do with it — it puts a lot of pressure on the tiny muscles at the corner of the mouth,’’ Jacobs said.

‘‘It takes stamina to support the sound when you are running out of air.

‘‘It is a wonderful piece though, with an enthusiasm and a naive excitement to it, and it is a lot of fun to try and bring that out in performance.’’

Jacobs has performed the concerto several times before, including once with the NZSO, and in the United Kingdom while he was freelancing over there.

‘‘It’s great to have such a work in the very limited repertoire of concertos for French horn — traditionally, we have had four by Mozart and two by Strauss. We look at pianists with envy,’’ he said.

‘‘Fortunately, there are now more French horn concertos being written by contemporary composers.’’

Along with his first performance with the DSO, Jacobs is looking forward to performing with guest conductor Matthias Bamert also for the first time.

‘‘I have heard he is a very nice guy, as well as being an internationally acclaimed conductor, so...