Brahms Horn Trio

[LeMartinPecheur]

Why not widen your ears with one of these...(including an SACD, just for you...)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Ligeti+Horn+trio

[vinteuil]

.


... very much my favourite -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0019ZF2PS

A natural horn from 1845 and an 1875 Bösendorfer, and sublime playing



( I see that CallMePaul got in well ahead of me, at #3 above... )

[Bryn]

Teunis van der Zwart (Natural Horn), Isabelle Faust (Violin, played using gut strings), Alexander Melnikov (Boesendorfer Piano of 1875). This is as near as we can get to hearing the trio as written for by Brahms and to my ear finer than any version on modern instruments. Harmonia Mundi Musique d'Abord HMA 1951981.

Duly ordered in its lower priced re-issue format. This release had quite escaped my attention.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Violin-Sonata-Fantasies-Op-116/dp/B017C1C8W2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1468491211&sr=1-1&keywords=brahms+melnikov

[Tony Halstead]

Bloom was the first horn for Philadelphia. That sounds tempting but I didn't see that listed in Amazon

Myron Bloom was actually 1st horn of the Cleveland Orchestra during much of the Szell era. I know this for sure since I occasionally studied with him after he left Cleveland and played for Barenboim with L'Orchestre de Paris during the late 1970s-1980s.
The Philadelphia Orchestra's 1st horn was Mason Jones.

[Hornspieler]

Myron Bloom was actually 1st horn of the Cleveland Orchestra during much of the Szell era. I know this for sure since I occasionally studied with him after he left Cleveland and played for Barenboim with L'Orchestre de Paris during the late 1970s-1980s.
The Philadelphia Orchestra's 1st horn was Mason Jones.

Absolutely correct - as always, Tony

Georg Szell was known as "The Iceberg" There is a story that on one occasion he failed to appear at a rehearsal session. The orchestra's manager appeared and announced:

"I have just been informed that Mr Szell is unwell and will not be appearing today. He has developed a bout of influenza and I am told that his temperature has risen as high as fifteen degrees!"

[richardfinegold]

Myron Bloom was actually 1st horn of the Cleveland Orchestra during much of the Szell era. I know this for sure since I occasionally studied with him after he left Cleveland and played for Barenboim with L'Orchestre de Paris during the late 1970s-1980s. We
The Philadelphia Orchestra's 1st horn was Mason Jones.

You are of course correct. I have a recording of him soloing in R. Strauss Horn Concerto, with Don Quixote as a coupling

[richardfinegold]

Why not widen your ears with one of these...(including an SACD, just for you...)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Ligeti+Horn+trio

The BRIDGE disc was top rec for the BaL for the Brahms Trio in 2007...

Thanks JLW that album is on Spotify. I like the Brahms but it's the Ligeti that drew my attention last night...I will order the SACD

[richardfinegold]

Thanks JLW that album is on Spotify. I like the Brahms but it's the Ligeti that drew my attention last night...I will order the SACD

Upon further review...the Brahms is beautifully played, but a bit to 'autumnal' for my taste. I don't think Brahms meant it to be so world weary, as his late Chamber Music and Piano Music could be.
The Ligeti is fascinating

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Upon further review...the Brahms is beautifully played, but a bit to 'autumnal' for my taste. I don't think Brahms meant it to be so world weary, as his late Chamber Music and Piano Music could be.

Certainly not "world weary", but there is a elegaic core (ho-ho) to the work, written in response to the death of his mother, and as a gesture of reconciliation with his father (IIRC - there had been some cooling of relations between father and son when "difficulties" arose his parents' marriage, for which the composer had blamed his father). The rare ensemble consists of the three instruments that Brahms had been taught to play by his father (who played them as required in amateur groups) - partly why the "Waldhorn" is specified on the manuscript, rather than just "horn".

[visualnickmos]

Upon further review...the Brahms is beautifully played, but a bit to 'autumnal' for my taste. I don't think Brahms meant it to be so world weary, as his late Chamber Music and Piano Music could be.
The Ligeti is fascinating

Go for the version on Sony: Bloom, Serkin, Tree. You will not regret it, I promise.....

[LeMartinPecheur]

Certainly not "world weary", but there is a elegaic core (ho-ho) to the work, written in response to the death of his mother, and as a gesture of reconciliation with his father (IIRC - there had been some cooling of relations between father and son when "difficulties" arose his parents' marriage, for which the composer had blamed his father). The rare ensemble consists of the three instruments that Brahms had been taught to play by his father (who played them as required in amateur groups) - partly why the "Waldhorn" is specified on the manuscript, rather than just "horn".

A few years ago horn player Stephen Stirling gave a very interesting talk on the work, before a magnificent performance.

I'd never understood why two grief-stricken slow movements alternated with much more cheery allegros. But apparently a standard German 'prescription' for grief and depression was to go hunting, hence all those view-halloo horn-calls. There are folk song quotations in the 3rd mov't which also point up the grief aspect, in particular a dialect one called "Heitschi Bumbeitschi schlaf lange', in which a boy laments his dead mother. [QED?]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'd never understood why two grief-stricken slow movements alternated with much more cheery allegros. But apparently a standard German 'prescription' for grief and depression was to go hunting, hence all those view-halloo horn-calls. There are folk song quotations in the 3rd mov't which also point up the grief aspect, in particular a dialect one called "Heitschi Bumbeitschi schlaf lange', in which a boy laments his dead mother. [QED?]

- and the Slow-Fast-Slow-Fast pattern (as Wiki reminds us ) is that of the Baroque Sonata a Chiesa, although they usually ended with a fast movement immovably in the minor. The first movement is the only example in all Brahms's four-movement works, not to be based in "Sonata Form"/on the Sonata Principle.

[Stanfordian]

Why not widen your ears with one of these...(including an SACD, just for you...)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Ligeti+Horn+trio

The BRIDGE disc was top rec for the BaL for the Brahms Trio in 2007...

Yes, the Brahms and the Ligeti trios are often coupled and I can understand why. This reminds me that in 2014 at the Philharmonie, Berlin I heard the Ligeti Hamburg Concerto for solo horn and chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns played the Konzerthausorchester under Iván Fischer. I was captivated!

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, the Brahms and the Ligeti trios are often coupled and I can understand why. This reminds me that in 2014 at the Philharmonie, Berlin I heard the Ligeti Hamburg Concerto for solo horn and chamber orchestra with 4 obbligato natural horns played the Konzerthausorchester under Iván Fischer. I was captivated!

Wonderful piece isn't it? And still just the one Teldec recording AFAIK, Volume 4 of the Ligeti Project, in the boxset or singly 2ndhand....
Thanks for reminding me, I'll try to hear it later....

[EdgeleyRob]

- and the Slow-Fast-Slow-Fast pattern (as Wiki reminds us ) is that of the Baroque Sonata a Chiesa, although they usually ended with a fast movement immovably in the minor. The first movement is the only example in all Brahms's four-movement works, not to be based in "Sonata Form"/on the Sonata Principle.

Would today's All of Bach be an example ferney ?