Product description NEUNECKER / METZMACHER / BAMBE Amazon.com This is a wonderful record: the music is pure enchantment, the performance utter perfection. Strauss wrote his first concerto as a teenager for his horn-virtuoso father, the second almost 60 years later; they share the same key, a brilliantly demanding solo part, and a hunting-horn finale. The first, youthfully romantic and exuberant, is remarkably well written; the second is vintage late Strauss with its luscious melodies and rich orchestration. The playing is stunning technically, tonally, and musically. Britten's Serenade for Horn, Tenor, and Strings is surely one of his masterpieces in the perfection of its form and sheer beauty of melody and harmony, melding words and music. It blends voice and instruments, evoking mood and character from pastoral peace, glorious triumph, and glittering gaiety to spine-chilling fear of death and heartwarming serenity. Written for tenor Peter Pears and hornist Dennis Brain, the work has found new ideal interpreters here, though Pears's voice and style remain unforgettable to anyone who has ever heard him. --Edith Eisler