At the Crossroads: Madsen’s Horn Sonata in Austin
Patrick Hughes and Colette Valentine’s At the Crossroads includes Madsen’s Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 24. Cover design: Edward A. Fleming. © Navona Records LLC. Source.
An Austin recording session and an autumn album release, more than eight years apart, frame Patrick Hughes and Colette Valentine’s recording of Madsen’s Horn Sonata. Their At the Crossroads brings the work into a recital programme that also includes Sondheim, Dunhill and music by Hughes himself.
The musicians recorded at Jessen Auditorium in Austin, Texas, on 15–17 March 2017. Navona Records released At the Crossroads on 3 October 2025. Between those dates lies the recording’s journey from session to publication, with Andy Murphy credited as engineer and producer and Murphy and Hughes sharing the editing and mastering. [1]
Within that programme, Madsen’s Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 24, occupies three tracks and approximately fifteen minutes. Hughes and Valentine play the complete work, whose movements are listed as Allegro, Quasi Menuetto, and Moderato, e poco rubato. [2]
The sonata brings its own earlier history to the album. Written in 1978 and dedicated to Frøydis Ree Wekre, it is connected in the album notes with the 150th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s death. Here it takes its place among works by seven composers in a programme assembled around the horn. [1] [2] [4]
The programme opens with Hughes’s arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns and continues with Laurence Lowe’s Sonata No. 1 and Scott Millichamp’s Crossroads. After the Madsen sonata come Russell Pinkston’s Zylamander and the six pieces of Thomas Dunhill’s Cornucopia. Hughes’s own From Hildegard closes the album, with the University of Texas Horn Choir joining the horn soloist. [2]
Hughes teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, where his responsibilities include directing the horn choir. His university biography also records work with La Follia Austin Baroque and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, alongside appearances with orchestras in Texas. He has presented performances and workshops in the United States, Australia, China and Taiwan. [3]
An earlier performer’s account offers another perspective on the sonata. Writing in Horn Matters in April 2017, John Ericson included it among his favourite twentieth-century horn works, which he had recorded on Canto. He drew particular attention to the Schubert theme in the finale, tracing its appearance in two of Schubert’s piano sonatas. [5]
Valentine’s connection with Austin is longstanding too. She joined the University of Texas’s collaborative piano faculty in 2008 and took over leadership of the programme in 2017. Her chamber music work includes the Ecco Trio and collaborations with visiting instrumentalists, alongside recordings for labels including Naxos and Albany. [1]
Before the album reached its October release date, the Madsen performance had already appeared on American radio. Alley Stoughton included Hughes and Valentine on Not Brahms and Liszt on 15 September 2025. The WMBR playlist placed them alongside music by Angélica Negrón, Frank Horvat, Victoria Bond and Arlene Sierra on MIT’s student and community station. [4]
The complete programme now offers listeners several ways to find the sonata and continue beyond it. Navona lists Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and other digital services for the sixteen-track album, which runs for approximately seventy-five minutes. Its catalogue number is NV6782. [1] [2]