Carl Stamitz (Karel Stamic): Concerto for French Horn, in E flat major, Zdenek Tylšar (french horn)

Carl Philipp Stamitz (Karel Stamic) - Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra in E flat major, Zdenek Tylšar (french horn), Prague Chamber Orchestra, František Vajnar (conductor)
Written: circa 1782
1.Allegro moderato – 0:00
2.Adagio – 07:30
3.Rondo – 12:13
Carl Philipp Stamitz (Karel Stamic; baptized 8 May 1745 – 9 November 1801) was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School. He was the eldest son of Johann Stamitz, a violinist and composer of the early classical period. Born in Mannheim, he received lessons from his father and Christian Cannabich, his father's successor as leader of the Mannheim orchestra.
About C Stamitz and the wind instruments: “Though trained as a violinist and violist—the instruments he is known to have played in the Mannheim orchestra—Carl became enamored of and devoted significant attention to the clarinet, writing at least a dozen concertos for the instrument, but not to the exclusion of the flute, cello, horn, bassoon, and viola, which he also graced with a number of concerted works. Two points are worth noting. The first is that it was Carl Stamitz, before Mozart, who embraced the still adolescent clarinet as an instrument to be taken seriously. And the second is that at exactly the same time that Haydn was tilling the field of the symphony Carl Stamitz was cultivating the crop of the concerto. In a way, the two composers, close contemporaries, complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses; for if, as it is often said, the concerto was not Haydn’s forte, then Stamitz’s strong suit was not the symphony.
If you check out the current CD on arkivmusic.com, you will note that the key of the horn concerto, which is listed as being in E Major, doesn’t agree with that given in the above headnote. In actuality, the ArkivMusic designation is not wrong. As improbable as it may seem that a concerto written in the early 1780s for an instrument usually pitched in F, less seldom in B, and rarely in G would be written in a key requiring three, four, or five sharps to be added to its key signature, that’s exactly what Stamitz did, possibly to increase the horn’s brilliance over the orchestra. The piece was transposed down a half step to the more playable E by the composer’s publisher. More problematic than the question of what key the concerto is in is the question of whether Stamitz is in fact its author. Suspicion has been raised that the work is actually by a Stamitz contemporary, the famed Czech horn virtuoso of the day, Jan (Giovanni) Punto, for whom Beethoven penned an early sonata.“ (from ArkivMusic, review in FANFARE by Jerry Dubins )