French Horn Recordings

The sound of the horn is the soul of the orchestra

Robert Schumann

Developing a characteristic and flexible French horn tone is one of the most important things to teach students – especially younger students.

Not only is a good French horn sound important in an ensemble, but getting a good sound means that the fundamental playing mechanics are (probably) working well. It’s very hard to get a good sound without using enough air or with too much tension!

In order to recognize and internalize a good horn sound, though, students must be hear good sounds. While hopefully this happens in their private lessons (if they are lucky), the student should also be listening to quality recordings by great players.

Why Not YouTube?

I say “great” players, because for all the great things you can find on some streaming platforms (like YouTube or Spotify), there are also some things that are definitely not great.

If a student spends hours listening to recordings with a bad tone, poor rhythm, no musicality, or poor recording quality (just to name a few), then they may start to imitate those mistakes. I’ve had several students come to me with some questionable interpretations of popular solo works because of recordings they have imitated. While I’m able to fix those errors (and point them in the direction of good recordings), if they had found good recordings in the beginning they would have saved a lot of practice time and frustration!

Why Buy Recordings?

While we are living in the age of streaming everything, I encourage students to buy good recordings for the following reasons:

• Buying a recording supports the whole classical music ecosystem. The record labels, recording studios, ensembles and performers. While most performers are not making a full-time living on recording revenue alone, buying a recording gives them much more money than streaming, and shows that you value their craft.
• You get higher-quality audio. While this may not be as important for some people and some musical styles, I think getting the highest-quality audio for classical music is important.
• You maintain access. Music comes and goes from YouTube/Spotify/etc. all the time. Your favorite horn player or ensemble may not always be available on your current platform.

If you don’t want to mess with CDs, you can always buy digital downloads (from a site like Amazon or iTunes). I buy CDs and rip them into high-quality MP3s and then add them to my Plex home media center.

French Horn Recordings

The following list is not an exhaustive list of good recordings. These are just some of my favorite soloists, small ensembles and orchestras. There are many other great recordings available.

If you’re looking for a few good ensembles or soloists, though, the following is a good start: