CSO’s Principal Horn Robert Johnson performs trios by Brahms and Smyth.
Brahms wrote his Horn Trio in 1865 for the natural horn or Waldhorn (forest horn), which he played as a child, rather than the newer valve horn. While the Trio’s slower movements are soulful and elegiac, Brahms acknowledges the horn’s history as a hunting instrument in the rollicking horn calls of the finale. Writing for what was then an unusual instrumental combination, Brahms set a template that would be followed by composers including Lennox Berkeley, György Ligeti and Dame Ethel Smyth, whose Trio opens this program.
At 19, Smyth moved to Germany to attend the Leipzig Conservatory, soon leaving the institution to study composition privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg, who introduced her to Brahms. Smyth wrote her Concerto for Violin and Horn for British horn player Aubrey Brain, who premiered it in 1927, more than half a century after Brahms wrote his Horn Trio. Smyth created the trio arrangement herself in 1928.
Like Brahms, Smyth finishes her Trio with a nod to hunting calls, but while Brahms harks back to an earlier horn, Smyth’s use of multiphonics (multiple pitches sounding at once) looks to the future.
PROGRAM
Ethel Smyth
Trio for violin, horn and piano
Johannes Brahms
Horn Trio in E flat major, Op.40
ARTISTS
Robert Johnson: horn
CSO Chamber Ensemble
When
Duration
Ticket prices
| Type | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult | $58 - 65 |
| Concession (means-tested pensioner, full-time students) | $51 - 57 |
| Under 35 | $35 |
| Student rush | $16 |