Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) described his Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano as an Hommage à Brahms.
It was Brahms who, with his own 1865 Horn Trio, pioneered this unique combination of instruments. Brahms was a composer who built on tradition. Composed in 1982, a year before the 150th anniversary celebrations of Brahms’ birth, Ligeti’s Trio similarly embraces a synthesis of old and new. For the composer, it marked a stylistic turning point in which such diverse influences as sub-Saharan African drumming, the music of Conlon Nancarrow (with his rhythmically complex Studies for Player Piano), and Chopin and Schumann come together. Ligeti wrote, “Musically this Horn Trio does not have much to do with my opinions of Brahms; what is remembered from Brahms is perhaps only a certain smilingly conservative comportment—with distinct ironic distance.”
Pianist Eckart Besch suggested that Ligeti write the Trio as a companion to Brahms’ work. The composer recalled, as soon as he pronounced the word ‘horn’ somewhere inside my head I heard the sound of a horn as if coming from a distant forest in a fairy tale, just as in a poem by Eichendorff.
The score calls for a natural horn. Before the development of valves, this was the original incarnation of the instrument. It’s a sound that Brahms found filled with woodland “poetry” when considering his own Trio. The harmonic partials of the natural horn do not align with the equal temperament of the piano’s tuning. This results in a vibrant dialogue among three disparate individual voices. Commentator Paul Griffiths writes that “part of the piece’s charm comes from how this wild creature (the horn) participates in a highly cultivated chamber music.” He describes the Trio as “a work of inviting strangeness and humor…Sometimes going their own ways, ignoring or misunderstanding one another, [the three instruments] nevertheless engage in conversation.”
The first movement (Andantino con tenerezza) begins with descending “lopsided” horn fifths, played by the violin. It is a reference to the opening of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 26, “Les Adieux.” The violin’s melody undergoes continuous motivic development, while a separate wandering melody emerges in the horn. Punctuated by spirited horn calls, the music is filled with an underlying mystery and nostalgia.
The second movement (Vivacissimo molto ritmico) is propelled forward by an exuberant ostinato. In the words of the composer, it was “inspired by the various folk musics of non-existing peoples—that is to say, as if Hungary, Romania and the entire Balkan region were situated somewhere between Africa and the Caribbean.”
Following an A-B-A scherzo-trio form, the third movement (Alla marcia) is filled with humor. It is a march which eschews the beat with careening syncopations. The contrasting B section unfolds with an eerie dialogue of smooth overlapping lines.
The final movement (Lamento. Adagio) is a tragic passacaglia. Dariusz Mikulski writes,
Out of the descending “lop-sided” horn fifths from the beginning of the first movement, the thematic cell of the whole work, a chromatic motive of tears now arises that intensifies to boundless desperation until the music collapses in itself in the truest sense of the word: Hammered in by the piano into its lowest registers, only to leave the violin in icy heights, against this the horn in its lowest registers with pedal-tones that are hardly recognizable.
This recording features Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano), Saschko Gawriloff (violin), and Marie-Luise Neunecker (horn):
I. Andantino con tenerezza:
II. Vivacissimo molto ritmico:
III. Alla marcia:
IV. Lamento. Adagio:
Recordings
- Ligeti: Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano “Hommage à Brahms” Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Saschko Gawriloff, Marie-Luise Neunecker Amazon