Paul,
Like all of your stuff that I have heard, this is a fine composition, the work of a talented, well-schooled musician. I really like your virtual perfomance, too. I read William's comment with interest also, and listened a couple of more times to see if I could hear the effect he was describing. At first I wasn't sure but then I tried something that made it more clear to me. I would like to share that with you, if I may:
Being a brass player myself, I opened up the score and followed along, imagining I was playing the lick that I saw passing before me. During the slurred and longer-note passages the virtual hornist was singing exactly what I would play (minus the clams), but when the figure had some articulated moving stuff, it didn't quite sound like what I would do if I was trying to musically re-create the figure I was looking at. This is probably a natural consequence of using notation to create the sequence: you have an instrument cruising along with a legato articulation patch, Cubase sees a quarter note on the and of one in the 2nd bar of your fugue theme and obligingly fills every nanosecond of time until the and of two with a softly-attacked tone...and then, without the slightest break begins the next note, also with a soft attack. Can't blame Cubase...that's what the the black dots are telling it to do. But if I were playing the lick, I'd put a wee bit more of an attack on the syncopation and a wee bit of daylight before the next attack, while still thinking to keep the phrase full and connected. The notation has nothing that tells me to do that but that's what I'd do. With that beautiful veiled and indirectly-heard sound, I think the horn is especially vulnerable to sounding like everything is slurred. It doesn't help that every movie and Sinatra album for 60 years had Vince DeRosa singing out a glorioius legato solo or two. But Dennis Brain showed us that you need to put a little more tut on the start of notes in legit solo and chamber stuff for clarity. It also gives it some contrast when you go legato and really mean it.
Paul, thanks for indulging me, I hope this is of value. As I said, I'm a real fan of your music. I think that, more than anyone else here, you are living the musical life that I aspire to. I'd love to talk with you offline sometime about your equipment, software, etc. and the way you create your beautiful pieces. Best wishes to you.
Tom