Brahms, Ligeti, Mozart, Schumann: Horn Trios

Featuring

Francesca Dego
Martin Owen
Alessandro Taverna
Johannes Brahms
György Ligeti
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Robert Schumann

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Compositional Technique

Ligeti's Trio incorporates metrically complex rhythms, developed from Bulgarian folk music by Béla Bartók, which become increasingly complicated and dizzying.

Composer's Artistic Vision

For German writers and composers like Brahms, the horn symbolized the voice of the forests, where life-changing encounters occur in German opera, poetry, and folk tales.

Composition History

Johannes Brahms's Horn Trio, Op. 40, effectively created the medium of the horn trio as a chamber music genre.

Instruments

Brahms preferred the old valveless 'hand horn' (Waldhorn) for its mellower voice, viewing the modern valved horn with suspicion and calling it a 'brass viola'.

Composer Biography

Brahms composed the slow movement of his Horn Trio, Adagio mesto, as a personal lament and memorial to his mother, who had died months before he began the work.

Historical Context

In the late 18th century, publishers often issued music in arrangements for different ensembles to broaden their appeal, especially among amateur musicians.

Composition History

György Ligeti's Trio 'Hommage à Brahms' was composed after pianist Eckart Besch suggested he write a companion piece to Brahms's Trio, ending a period of creative paralysis for Ligeti.