Some combinations appear regularly in Hamburg’s packed cultural calendar – a trio of horn, violin and piano is not among them. Yet when the principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic joins forces with one of Germany’s leading violinists and a pianist of international distinction, the result is a constellation of exceptional brilliance.
Before Christian Tetzlaff and Kirill Gerstein join Stefan Dohr to form a trio, they open the evening with Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 – a work of concentrated energy and emotional depth. This is followed by György Ligeti’s Horn Trio, composed as a deliberate response to Brahms’s work for the same combination of instruments. The unusual ensemble inspired Ligeti to a wealth of new sonic ideas and enabled him to overcome a prolonged creative crisis.
No less innovative is the music of György Kurtág, with which the duo from the opening of the concert returns in the second half. The programme concludes with Brahms’s Horn Trio – a work of remarkable warmth and chamber-musical grandeur.
PERFORMERS
Stefan Dohr french horn
Christian Tetzlaff violin
Kirill Gerstein piano
PROGRAM
Johannes Brahms
Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108
György Ligeti
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano
- Interval -
György Kurtág
Tre pezzi for Violin and Piano, Op. 14e
Johannes Brahms
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano in E-flat major, Op. 40
