Horn Concerto no. 2, op. 58

Malcolm Arnold wrote his Second Horn Concerto in 1956 for Dennis Brain, whose playing had already prompted the First Concerto of 1945 and who died in a car crash the following year. Arnold had spent nine years as principal trumpet of the London Philharmonic before turning to composition full time, and he wrote for wind players with an insider's knowledge of what the instrument could be made to do quietly as well as loudly. The concerto is short, in three movements, and scored for strings alone — a restraint unusual for him at that date.