Classical Music | Ensemble Music

Johannes Brahms

Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano Op. 40 Play Play

Ensemble

Recorded on 08/11/2010, uploaded on 01/13/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

DeAunn Davis, Horn, Andrew Williams, Violin, Adam Marks, Piano

I. Andante; II. Scherzo; III. Adagio mesto; IV. Allegro con brio

This Trio comes at the end of Brahms' early chamber compositions and in many ways looks back nostalgically to his youth. In the Adagio movement, Brahms quotes the folk song "Dort in den Weiden steht ein Haus" (There in the Willows Stands a House), one of his childhood favorites, learned from his mother. There is some evidence that this entire, deeply emotional movement was an elegy in her memory. The entire mood and tone of the piece is evocative of nature and hunting, two of the most important themes of the Romantic movement to which Brahms was closely allied in his youth. Also, mainly because of the scoring and its allusions to "occasional" rather than "serious" music, this Trio stands somewhat apart from Brahms' other chamber works. It is unique in his output, yet remains a deeply personal statement.

Instead of the usual sonata movement, Brahms opens the Trio with an expanded three-part form Andante movement (ABABA) that alternates a longing and nostalgic melody with a faster, yearning passage. The Scherzo is a rousing hunting song, full of energy and good spirits. Introspective and deeply personal, the third movement Adagio is in a simple ABA form, yet is complicated by Brahms' use of a fugal exposition to present the principal material. It is in the emotionally charged reprise that Brahms quotes the aforementioned folk song. Brahms concludes the Trio with as light and rollicking an Allegro as he was capable of writing. Again the horn's hunting qualities are featured, and the Trio ends in a virtuosic tour de force for all three instruments. Fifth House Ensemble