Beate Pokorny

Beate Pokorny (probably born in the 1760s)^[1] was a French horn player from Bohemia.^[2][3] She may have been the daughter of the composer František Xaver Pokorný,^[4] and she is one of the earliest known female horn players.^[5][6]

Beate Pokorny
Born	1760s
Died	Unknown[1]
Occupation	Musician
Relatives	František Xaver Pokorný

Historical accounts

Few accounts of Pokorny are available.^[2] The 1 January 1780^[4] edition of the Mercure de France praises Pokorny's performance of a concerto by Giovanni Punto at the Concert Spirituel on 24 December 1779.^[1][3] A pair of 1780 advertisements in The Morning Post allude to concerts in London by "two Miss Pokorny"^[2][1] who both played the horn; a third advertisement indicates a concert for the benefit of the two Pokornys.^[1] The identity of the second Pokorny is unknown.^[2] Beate Pokorny is described as vituosic in two dictionaries, one from 1792 and the other from 1817.^[3]

Analysis

According to musicologist Jan La Rue, the symphonies of František Xaver Pokorný have "exceptional" horn parts, which could be explained by having a skilled horn player as a daughter.^[4] Imyra Santana of Panthéon-Sorbonne University comments that more than one family of the name Pokorny is known to have been highly musical, and argues that the presence of a second horn player, likely her sister, suggests she came from a family of musicians.^[2] Santana also argues that she likely chose a concerto by Punto in order to demonstrate her virtuosity.^[3]