Brahms; Ligeti: Horn Trios > Reviews > Horn Trios by Brahms and Ligeti

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Not applicable
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Two outstanding peices of chamber music for an unusual combination of instruments
Disadvantages:	On the surface quite contrasting works, listener must be openminded

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The work of Ligeti has been at the forefront of Western avant-garde since his escape from the oppressive communist regime of Hungary in 1956, and he is widely appreciated as one of the most outstanding contemporary composers. The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano because it was born out of a three-year period of illness and writer's block after the completion of Le Grand Macabre in which time he laboured over a piano concerto but completed only two short harpsichord pieces (Continuum and Hungarian Rock), yet the result in 1982 was the Trio, one of the finest and most complex pieces written so far. His career up to this point had included such sucesses as his Requiem, Atmosphères and the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film 2001. Tiring of his own cluster-textural techniques and the avant-garde, Ligeti refreshed his compositional procedures, deriving new and original ideas influenced by the chamber music of old masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. Ligeti was influenced by the music of fellow Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, who once stated that "Every art has the right to strike its roots in the art of a previous age; it not only has the right to but it must stem from it". This makes the pairing of one of Ligeti's finest works with the Brahms Op.40 Trio a very appropriate one. Both outstanding chamber works in their own rights and certainly the two best pieces composed for this unusual combination invented by Brahms, a good recording is essential, but hard to find. There are not that many recordings in existence of these works due to the technical complexity for performers and even acclaimed recordings such as the CD by Perlman, Ashkenazy, and Tuckwell lack the sensitivity and expression key to the music. The Danish Horn Trio have succeeded in producing a fine recording, which incorporates the many different moods and styles demanded from both these challenging works. This is particularly evident in the Adagio Mesto of the Op.40, where the controlled and expressive phrasing compliments the powerfully emotional lamento motif, thought to represent the death of Brahms's mother. Ligeti's Horn Trio is a Hommage à Brahms, also written after his mother's death and written very cleverly around the natural harmonics of the horn, which unfold throughout the work like an organic being. These complex effects are well executed by the horn player and mirrored by the other players. This is probably the most up to date recording and well worth listening to, a great coupling of these fascinating works.