Dennis Brain - Legacy

Legacy

The beauty of Brain's music and the tragedy of his death captured the public imagination like no British horn player before or since. Horn players in general do not have the profile of the great violinists although the principal horn is generally paid second only to the leader of an orchestra, the horn being notoriously difficult to play. Giovanni Punto inspired Beethoven to write for horn, Brain inspired Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Arnold and Michael Tippett. He popularised the classical horn repertoire and his brief career coincided with a renaissance of English classical performance and composition; like his contemporary James Galway he made the transition from orchestra to soloist, and his death further boosted his status as a musical legend. Recordings from the 1950s are still available and many still consider the Brain / Karajan recordings as the definitive edition of the Mozart horn concerti.

Brain was both a great horn player and a figure in popular culture, from his recordings of the Mozart concerti to his ridiculous playing of the hosepipe (perfectly in pitch) in one of Gerard Hoffnung's surreal musical extravaganzas. His Mozart recordings inspired Flanders and Swann's Ill Wind and his classical playing inspired future generations of horn players.