Richard has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, and London Festival Orchestra. As a natural horn player he has performed with the London Classical Players.

This concert highlights the role of the horn in chamber music, and included two great quintets for horn and strings, both being presented at BCMS for the first time – by Mozart and the 20th Century British composer York Bowen.

For those not familiar with Bowen’s music, you can expect music which is unashamedly romantic in personality and ambience, brooding and emotional with a frequent haunting and sensual beauty. His scores, spanning two world wars, are much more than mere curios, wheeled out occasionally for historical interest. The Horn quintet is a masterwork, and many are amazed that it is not a major part of the chamber music repertoire.

Butterworth’s Romanza for horn and strings was composed in 1954 for the then principal horn of the Scottish National Orchestra – by all accounts an eccentric character, whose grandmother was said to be a Red Indian squaw! He never performed it, but the work eventually received its first performance by Ifor James, with the BBC Northern Orchestra, in 1958.