My Master has been busy lately. When he is busy, the dog is busy too, so the update of this blog has been significantly delayed. Life is short, but there are still many great performances by Peter Damm that I want to introduce. I need to hurry up a bit. This time, we will introduce Telemann’s “Horn Concerto in D Major,” which opens the album “Hornkonzerte der Vorklassik,” introduced in Episode 2 of Season 2.
At Telemann, you can hear Peter Damm’s beautiful high tones. My Master is not good at high tones, so he thought, “If I use the same mouthpiece as Peter Damm, I might be able to produce beautiful high notes.”
He visited a workshop of Schmidt in Markneukirchen, a famous musical instrument town in Germany. My Master, who does not speak German at the time, had a challenging time to communicate with Schmidt’s owner, who can barely speak English, but he managed to get a mouthpiece called “Prof. P. Damm(*)” by repeatedly calling out “Peter Damm, Peter Damm!” (*)
Later, I knew the model has not been authorized by Peter Damm himself.
“Now I can produce Damm’s beautiful sound at will. This is great!” he thought with high hopes when he put it on his own horn, but the sound was far from beautiful, and he understood, “Peter Damm was not build by one mouthpiece.”
I’ve gotten off topic, but I think the best way to enjoy Peter Damm’s beautiful sound is through a recording.
Players and Recording
Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Orchestra: Kammerorchester C.Ph.E.Bach der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin
Engineer：Heinrich Eras
Recording year：1981（Peter Damm 44 years old)
Venue：Berlin Christuskirche
My favorite
No.1 movement – Allegro
Various events come one after another every day, and we have to deal with them one by one. There is no time to stop and think. You can enjoy lively performances that support us with the horn in such busy days.
No.2 Movement – Largo
It would be nice if there were something fun to do every day, but sometimes sad things happen. At such times, Largo is there to comfort us. It’s a very short piece, but I think it’s one of Peter Damm’s best performances.
No.3 Movement – Allegro moderato
A lively song that will blow away any lonely feelings in an instant. According to Mr. K, a senior disciple of his master’s “Damm-Do”, Peter Damm has studied the performance of songs from this period in depth, and he strictly follows the performance method, such as ending the first repeat softly and always adding ornaments to change the second repeat. It’s even more fun to listen carefully to how the first and second repeats change.
