Stefan Dohr: Mozart – Horn concerto K 371 – I. Allegro

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus

Concerto for horn and orchestra in E flat major K 371 (reduction for horn and piano)

I. Allegro

Stefan Dohr, guest professor

Nicolás Gómez Naval, student

Jesús Gómez Madrigal, accompanying pianist

At the beginning, the student performs the movement of the Concerto followed by the professor’s comment that little of the work is actually by Mozart. When playing it, he suggests that the student adopt more of a soloist attitude, with more showmanship, because if not, it is terrible since it is not a great work, and mostly not by Mozart. He should imagine an operatic character singing this, with energy and force like Don Giovanni. Stefan Dohr indicates that he should not lose the connection between the phrases, and to that end, he makes suggestions and asks him about his plan when working on it at home. It is necessary to have this plan and follow it. Furthermore, throughout the class, Professor Dohr makes corrections regarding body posture, dynamics, articulation, more tension at a certain culminating moment, etc. The professor asks him to play as loudly as possible, with great intensity, but that it should be a beautiful, open forte: he shows him by stretching an elastic band to the maximum, which resembles the amount of air that should be used, with a large breath. They continue working mainly to improve the emission of sound and to have greater clarity, using air, breathing, and preparing adequately.
Finally, the professor advises the student on how to study: he should concentrate on technique and air, sing and phrase, work on the difficult parts and not always play from top to bottom, do 10 minutes of exercises with the embouchure in front of the mirror, etc.

Language: English