The Golden Age of the Horn: Concertos for 2 Horns

ARTISTS: JoAnn Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Muzyk, Daniel Kerdelewicz
COMPOSER: Friedrich Witt, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Leopold Mozart, Frantisek Xaver Pokorny
LABEL: Naxos
CAT ID: 8.574646 (747313464678)

GRAMMY® CATEGORIES SUBMITTED INTO:
Classical Compendium
Classical Instrumental Solo - Jacek Muzyk & Daniel Kerdelewicz (Friedrich Witt: Concerto for Two Horns and Orchestra (No. 3) in F major)
Engineered Album, Classical
Producer of the Year, Classical (Bernd Gottinger)

The 18th century established the horn as a solo instrument, with virtuoso players commissioning concertos throughout Europe. The technical demands required to play hand-stopped instruments meant that many such concertos have not surfaced until recently. An exact contemporary of Beethoven, Friedrich Witt makes athletic use of the double horns’ range in his Concerto in F major, which is also a feature of the cat-and-mouse interplay in Hoffmeister’s Concerto No. 3 in E flat. Expressive lyricism is present in such works as Leopold Mozart’s elegant and refined Concerto for Two Horns in E flat major, while the graceful Larghetto in Pokorný’s Concerto for Two Horns in F major is framed by two exuberant outer movements. 

Performers

Photo Credit: Heather Bellini

JoAnn Falletta

GRAMMY Award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and music director laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She has guest conducted many of the most prominent orchestras in America, Canada and throughout Europe, Asia and South America. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American ensemble. Credited with bringing the Philharmonic to an unprecedented level of national and international prominence, she is a leading recording artist for Naxos. She won her most recent GRAMMY Award in 2021 as conductor of the BPO for Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua, following her 2019 Grammy win as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for Kenneth Fuchs’ Spiritualist (both Naxos). In 2024 and 2025, she and the BPO were nominated for the Best Orchestral Performance Grammy for  Alexander Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy and Symphony No. 2 (Naxos, 2024), and music of  Kodaly  (Naxos, 2025). In 2025, Falletta was also nominated for Best Classical Compendium for music of Lukas Foss.  (Naxos, 2025).  . Her Naxos recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (8.559331) received two GRAMMY Awards in 2008. From 2011 to 2014 she served as principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, with whom she made her BBC Proms debut and recorded six highly acclaimed Naxos albums. She was the first woman and the first American to fill this post. Falletta is a member of the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has served as a member of the National Council on the Arts, is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards and was named Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year 2019 and received the Dallas Symphony's Award of Excellence in 2024. 

For more information, visit www.joannfalletta.com.

 

Photo Credit: Anna Dzięgiel

Jacek Muzyk

Polish French horn player Jacek Muzyk earned Master’s degrees at the Academy of Music in Krakow and the Mannes School of Music in New York. He continued his education at The Juilliard School and Rice University, and in 2016 attained a Doctorate in Music. After returning to Poland, he worked with orchestras including Sinfonia Varsovia and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1999, he was nominated as principal horn for Krystian Zimerman’s Polish Festival Orchestra. In 2002 he moved to the United States, where he played with the Houston Grand Opera and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, before being appointed principal horn of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He has made guest appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and served as principal horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has appeared with various other orchestras across the United States as well as internationally, often performing as a guest soloist. Muzyk has given numerous masterclasses and recitals, and has made many solo recordings.

For more information, please visit: https://www.jacekmuzyk.com/

 

Photo Credit: Patti DiLutis

Daniel Kerdelewicz

Daniel Kerdelewicz was raised in Czeremcha, Poland. At 15 he travelled 300 miles to study horn at the Karol Krupiński Military Music School. He received his Master’s degree from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław while performing in the Representative Band of the Polish Armed Forces, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. While in Poland, he premiered Wojtek Blecharz’s Concerto for Horn, Saxophone and Orchestra. In 2009, Kerdelewicz was invited to join the Buffalo Philharmonic as acting associate principal horn by JoAnn Falletta, and won the position in 2010. He has since performed, recorded and toured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as appeared as guest principal horn of the Charlotte Symphony. Kerdelewicz credits his music education to his teachers and mentors Brygida Muchowiecka, Adam Wolny, Jacek Muzyk and William Caballero. During the summer he also performs with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra as third horn.

 

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Founded in 1935, the GRAMMY Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) is Buffalo’s leading cultural ambassador, presenting more than 120 classics, pops and youth concerts each year. Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall. In March 2018, the BPO became the first American orchestra to perform at the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, Poland. In 2022, they made their 24th appearance at Carnegie Hall celebrating the life and works of Lukas Foss, former BPO music director. Over the decades, the BPO has matured in stature under leading conductors William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov and Maximiano Valdés. During the tenure of JoAnn Falletta, the BPO has rekindled its distinguished history of radio broadcasts and recordings, including the release of around 50 albums of diverse repertoire on the

Naxos and Beau Fleuve Records labels. The Philharmonic’s recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (Naxos 8.559331), featuring soprano Hila Plitmann, received GRAMMY Awards for Best Classical Vocal Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and its recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua (Naxos 8.559885-86) received a GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance.

For more information, please visit: https://www.bpo.org

.

Press

“Principal Jacek Muzyk and associate principal Daniel Kerdelewicz are beyond flawless in these four concertos. Their mellow tone and timbre technique give the illusion of two players who make perfect intonation, ensemble, and above all phrasing sound easy and natural, like water off a duck’s back.“
Gil French, Fanfare Magazine, May 2025

“Falletta leads the orchestra in a smoothly gentle manner that proves seductive.
Complementing the high spirits and lovely horn playing by both soloists is Naxos’ by now expected fine engineering from Buffalo, accurately revealing the smooth acoustic of Kleinhans Hall.”
Steven Kruger, Fanfare Magazine, March 2025

“The playing is superb. Muzyk and Kerdelewicz play valved horns in this recording, so tone qualities are uniform, technical challenges met with seeming ease. Falletta has the orchestra playing with graceful energy.”
Barry Kilpatrick, American Record Guide, March 2025

“For music of this nature to resonate well with the audience, it is essential that it is performed beautifully, and this is precisely what Polish soloists Jacek Muzyk and Damiel Kerdelewicz achieve, displaying virtuosity in works that demand the highest standards from the performer, with the equally commendable collaboration of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (New York) conducted by JoAnn Falletta” 
Salustio Alvarado, Ritmo, March 2025

“Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdelewicz handle all the concertos with sensitivity and a fine sense of the necessary interplay between their parts, and JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with style and enthusiasm throughout.”
Infodad.com, January 2025

“It is all quite marvelous.”
David Threasher, Gramophone, January 2025

“Muzyk and Kerdelewicz are every bit the modern-day counterparts to these 18th-century virtuosos [Zwierzina and Nagel], and their Buffalo colleagues play with a lightness of touch…”
Raymond Jones, Host/Producer, WHRO Classical FM

“The Leopold Mozart is the album’s highlight – its sophisticated interplay between soloists and orchestra genuinely tickles the ear… much to enjoy as this mellow instrument takes centre stage.”
BBC Music Magazine, January 2025

“The two soloists, Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdelewicz, have unimagined opportunities to show off their skills, ranging from athletic demands, for example in the first movement of Friedrich Witt’s work, to lyrical passages in the slow movement of Pokorny’s work. And they do so excellently.”
Pál Körtefa, Pizzicato, October 2024

JoAnn Falletta – Awards & Commercial Success

GRAMMY AWARDS/NOMINATIONS & OTHER RECORDING AWARDS

  • 2025 Grammy nomination for Best Orchestral Performance for music of Kodaly, Buffalo Philharmonic, Naxos 
    Grammy nomination for Best Classical Compendium for music of Lukas Foss, Buffalo Philharmonic, Naxos

  • 2023 Grammy Nomination for Best Orchestral Performance  Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy & Symphony No. 2, Buffalo Philharmonic Naxos 

  • 2021 Grammy Award – Danielpour: Passion of Yeshua, Naxos

  • Best Choral Performance (Shares with Adam Luebke and James K. Bass)

  • 2019 Grammy Award - Fuchs: Spiritualist, Naxos (1stFemale Conductor to win)Best Classical Compendium

  • 2008 Grammy Award–Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, Naxos

    Best Classical Vocal Performance (Hila Plitmann) and
    Best Classical Contemporary Composition

  • 2021 Diapason D'or Award - Schmitt: La Tragédie de Solomé

  • Grammy nominated discs of works by Tyberg, Dohnányi, Fuchs, Schubert, Respighi,Gershwin, Corigliano, Strauss, Hailstork and Holst

MAJOR CONDUCTING AWARDS

  • Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award (2002)

  • Ditson Award (1998)

  • ASCAP John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music (1993)

  • Toscanini Conducting Award (1986)

  • Bruno Walter Award (1982-1987)

  • Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition, First prize (1985)

  • Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellowship (1980)

OTHER HONORS AND AWARDS

  • 2024 Dallas Symphony’s Award of Excellence

  • 2023 International Conductor’s Guild Max Rudolf Award for outstanding achievement as a conductor and pedagogue

  • Major Orchestra Librarians' Association (MOLA) Eroica Award for outstanding service to music 

  • 2021 - Diapason D'or Award for Florent Schmitt: La  Tragédie de Salomé 

  • 2019 Inaugural Classical Woman of the Year –NPR/Performance Today

  • 2016 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  • 2008-2012 National Council of the Arts (Presidential Appointment)

  • Fifteen ASCAP Awards

  • 2022 Ovation Award from the Virginia Arts Council

  • 2023 Major Orchestras Librarian Association (MOLA) Award

  • Eroica Award for Outstanding Service to Music

  • 2023 Inducted into the WNY Business Hall of Fame