Audio Review: Audrey Flores, Horn

Audrey Flores, Horn (Album)
Audrey Flores, Horn
Manon Hutton-DeWys, Piano

Audrey Flores is no stranger to the freelance world in New York City. A graduate of Juilliard and Mannes, she has performed with the most familiar ensembles in the NYC area including the New York Philharmonic, Symphony in C, and the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. She has also played on a number of Broadway shows and in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Orchestra. With this amount of variety in her playing, and to put a solo album together, Audrey is allowed the opportunity to express herself through some music for her instrument.

The first piece on her debut album, Four Pieces for Horn, is a conglomeration of horn and clarinet music from a larger selection of works for multiple instruments by Reinhold Glière. Written in 1908, these short movements are each individually (and wonderfully) characterized by Audrey’s sound.

The second selection, Laudatio, was written by Bernhard Krol, a German horn player. Audrey interprets this work quite well patiently letting silence play a factor in the overall work. This next work, a Sonata by Barbara York, was written for Heather Doughty of the U.S. Coast Guard Band. Each movement has a wonderful flow through the horn. I particularly enjoy the second movement with its eighth note accompaniment in the piano allowing the horn to effortlesslyglide through the melody.

After the York Sonata, Audrey performs Intrada by Otto Ketting. This work allows the horn to have an almost cadenza-like feel with its dynamic rhythms and fanfare through rapid fire rhythms and jumping intervals. The last work on this debut album is another Sonata for Horn written by Trygve Madsen. With another standard of the repertoire, Flores is able to solidify her interpretation on some of the well known compositions for the horn repertoire.

When Audrey first emailed me about her new album, she had mentioned this was a lifelong dream to record some of her favorite pieces and to have a physical recording of those works. It is great to hear of someone who still believes in the essence of an physical album.

Audrey, this is a job well done and congrats on adding your style to these great pieces!

To purchase the album, click here.

To read the liner notes, click here.

To learn more about Audrey Flores, click here.