BaL 2.01.21 - Brahms: Horn Trio Op. 40

[gurnemanz]

Stirling also recounted how after a performance he was complimented by a member of the audience for his playing of a dialect lullaby-tune called 'Heidschi Bumbeidschi schlaf' lange' which had been sung to her as a child, (EDIT in 2nd mov't not 3rd as I wrote first, see below) a link then unknown and still AFAIK not widely reported. Significantly, this lullaby is for a boy whose mother has just died! Stirling also mentioned the frequent falling horn fifths which he described as a standard contemporary signal of grief and loneliness (Waldeinsamkeit?), and a violin passage in the 3rd mov't which concludes with the marking niente, possibly in imitation of a death-rattle. It does all hang together!

BIG PPS. Online research shows that Heidschi Bumbeidschi is the folk tune in the SECOND movement trio that the reviewer mentioned as being in a Princeton Brahms-related MS discovered by Hogwood: see https://translate.google.com/transla...search&pto=aue

Thanks so much for this reminiscence and fascinating link. I greatly enjoyed Prof Berger's description and musical illustrations. Out of curiosity I googled Heidschi Bumbeidschi and the first link was to Heintje, the 60s child star, on YouTube - quite appropriate for it to be sung by a child but not that appealing. Engelbert Humperdinck is also there but I found another rendition with a pleasant Austrian lilt more enjoyable.

PS The translation linked to was pretty good but there was an amusing oddity. I was surprised to read this: "With Gustav Mahler this happens in his 3rd symphony. In her Scherzo there is a very peculiar passage, the so-called "Posthorn Episode" ..." On first reading I thought Mahler had changed sex and then realised the German was "in ihrem Scherzo" - in its Scherzo - and the Google translation machine had not allowed for symphonies being grammatically feminine in German). I did then switch to to original.

[jayne lee wilson]

Who are the musicians, please?

Haven't heard the BaL yet, but going on above thread info, the one in the Argerich/Friends/Lugano/2016 set has:

David Guerrier horn
Renaud Capuçon violin
Nicholas Angelich piano

I guess that must be the top rec....?

[Alison]

Haven't heard the BaL yet, but going on above thread info, the one in the Argerich/Friends/Lugano/2016 set has:

David Guerrier horn
Renaud Capuçon violin
Nicholas Angelich piano

I guess that must be the top rec....?

Yes

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes

Any shortlstings, alternatives offered....?

[Alison]

Any shortlstings, alternatives offered....?

Stirling, Marwood, Tomes

[Leinster Lass]

Any shortlstings, alternatives offered....?

Recommended:
Zwart/Faust/Melnikov
Neunecker/Weithaas/Avenhaus
Stirling/Marwood/Tomes

[gurnemanz]

Recommended:
Zwart/Faust/Melnikov
Neunecker/Weithaas/Avenhaus
Stirling/Marwood/Tomes

Also liked the classic 1932 Adolf Busch, Aubrey Brain & Rudolf Serkin - the only one she mentioned of the three in my collection.

[kernelbogey]

Thanks Jayne, Alison

[ostuni]

Interesting first choice. I can see why Natasha L likes it, but fir my tastes, there's a strange mismatch between the piquancy of the natural horn and Capuçon's overripe modern violin tone. And although she liked the feel of 2-in-a-bar for the 3rd movement's Adagio mesto, I found that Angelich's constant holding back of the final quaver in the bar an annoying mannerism which threatened to bog the music down too often.

Yes, there are balance issues in the fully period-instrument Melnikov et al recording: Faust's tendency to reduce her tone to an absolute whisper doesn’t work anything like as well here as it does, for instance, in her Beethoven Violin Sonatas, and Beethoven Piano Trio recordings (also with Melnikov). But the natural horn, and the lovely colours of Melnikov's period Bösendorfer make this my own first choice.

I was sorry they only played a little of the recent Frank-Gemmill/Grimwood/Gilmore version. This, interestingly and effectively, uses a 'semi-period' horn: the same French natural horn with an added piston-valve section, which was played by Aubrey Brain on that 1933 recording, and loaned to Frank-Gemmill for this 2019 recording. The much narrower bore, and more transparent sound of this instrument lets the player really play out without drowning the violin.

Anyway, as with last week's Christmas Oratorio, the winner is another hybrid of modern instruments with period brass!

[LeMartinPecheur]

What a wonderful piece, thanks LMP.

Many thanks verismissimo.

I recall so well Stephen Stirling's wonderful playing of this trio on several occasions, although with Endymion (Krysia Osostowicz and Michael Dussek).

Exactly the line-up I heard: Dante Festival, 11/7/2012, St Mary's Church, Callington, Cornwall, just down the road

[silvestrione]

That folk tune in the trio....it seems very familiar somehow! Anyone else have that feeling, or even an explanation?

[silvestrione]

That folk tune in the trio....it seems very familiar somehow! Anyone else have that feeling, or even an explanation?

Apart from me, that is....it's much the same as a Brahms Lullaby in a simple piano book I had when a boy!

[HighlandDougie]

Interesting first choice. I can see why Natasha L likes it, but fir my tastes, there's a strange mismatch between the piquancy of the natural horn and Capuçon's overripe modern violin tone. And although she liked the feel of 2-in-a-bar for the 3rd movement's Adagio mesto, I found that Angelich's constant holding back of the final quaver in the bar an annoying mannerism which threatened to bog the music down too often.

Yes, there are balance issues in the fully period-instrument Melnikov et al recording: Faust's tendency to reduce her tone to an absolute whisper doesn’t work anything like as well here as it does, for instance, in her Beethoven Violin Sonatas, and Beethoven Piano Trio recordings (also with Melnikov). But the natural horn, and the lovely colours of Melnikov's period Bösendorfer make this my own first choice.

I was sorry they only played a little of the recent Frank-Gemmill/Grimwood/Gilmore version. This, interestingly and effectively, uses a 'semi-period' horn: the same French natural horn with an added piston-valve section, which was played by Aubrey Brain on that 1933 recording, and loaned to Frank-Gemmill for this 2019 recording. The much narrower bore, and more transparent sound of this instrument lets the player really play out without drowning the violin.

Anyway, as with last week's Christmas Oratorio, the winner is another hybrid of modern instruments with period brass!

Many thanks, Ostuni. Your deconstruction of the programme - and the versions in contention - have led me to order the Melnikov. Somehow I feel that you know what you are talking about!

[jayne lee wilson]

Many thanks, Ostuni. Your deconstruction of the programme - and the versions in contention - have led me to order the Melnikov. Somehow I feel that you know what you are talking about!

Do you have the BIS (Neunecker/Weithaas/Avenhaus) or BRIDGE (see #32, different combos for each work) c/w Ligeti? Don't miss them, the SACD especially, see my comments above (#23 & #33).... I wonder if the BRIDGE (previous BaL winner) got a mention this time...

Many recordings I admire, but I love that Bridge one the best in both works....fullness of tone and sound, seeks out every musical corner, every detail.... fully expressive...gorgeous record.

[ostuni]

HD: thanks, you’re welcome! jlw: I'm a great admirer of Neunecker (saw her do the Ligeti concerto at the QEH a couple of years ago, and v much liked the extract from her Strauss 2 on BaL recently), and Weithaas too. I liked their Brahms extract on today's BaL: I’ll follow up on Qobuz. Did that Bridge recording get played towards the beginning of BaL: there was certainly one with Goode (the only name I know in that lineup), which sounded a bit ponderous for my taste in this early piece from the young Brahms, but I'm sure it deserves more than one brief extract.