Recordings
David L. Smith
Virtually unknown today, Giovanni Punto (1748—1803) was famous in his time as a horn virtuoso and composer. Born Jan Vaclav Stich to a serf family in Prague, he was educated musically by a patron, Count von Thun, from whose dominance he fled, at age 20, across the border to the Holy Roman Empire, the furious Count's soldiers close at his heels with orders to end his performing career by kicking out his front teeth. After taking the Italianized name Punto, the Czech began a peripatetic course that took him to Paris, where an admiring Mozart wrote for him the Sinfonia Concertante (K.297b), and to Vienna, where Beethoven honored him with the Opus 17 Sonata. Thanks to contemporary horn virtuoso Barry Tuckwell, we now have the details of Punto's remarkable life and a recording of four Punto concertos (Angel SZ-37781), eclectic specimens all. The music has panache and teasing charm, just right to showcase the talents of a Punto or a Tuckwell, and the performances here are ably partnered by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
