Brahms: Horn Trio (CD review)

Also, Mozart: Horn Quintet (adapted for horn, violin, piano). Jeff Nelsen, horn; Ik-Hwan Bae, violin; Naomi Kudo, piano. Opening Day ODR 7384.

The three musicians who assembled for this recording are outstanding artists in their own right. Horn player Jeff Nelsen is a member of the famed Canadian Brass; prizewinning violinist Ik-Hwan Bae is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Indiana University; and fellow prizewinner, pianist Naomi Kudo, performs extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States. Together, they form a well-knit ensemble that sounds as though they've been playing together much longer than they have.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano in E-flat major, Op. 40, in 1865, the year his mother died, his only other composition at that time being the German Requiem. There is a pervasive solemnity that hangs over the entire Trio. In fact, Brahms derived one of the themes in the last two movements from an old folk song his mother sang to him in his childhood.

The melancholy begins with the somber opening Andante, the mellowness of Nelsen's horn sounding a mournful note against the sorrowfulness of Bae's violin and Kudo's accompanying piano. The Scherzo that comes up next lightens the mood considerably, and the players add a delightfully zesty flavor to the proceedings without entirely disrupting the still-serious tone.

Brahms apparently intended the third-movement Adagio as a kind of funeral dirge. It certainly comes across that way, the violin, especially, practically weeping, the horn grieving in sympathy. Then, the Finale wraps everything up in lively fashion with an affirmation and commemoration of life. At least that's the way the players here present it, and it makes a fitting segue into the Mozart work that follows it.

The Mozart Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K.407 (K.386c), adapted for horn, violin, and piano by Tony Rickard, is an entire change of pace from the Brahms piece. Mozart's work is not only witty, virtuosic, sensitive, and thoroughly charming, we can see in it the composer's waggish nature, Mozart seeming to relish in the fact that the participants tease one another with their instruments. If you're familiar with his Horn Concertos, you'll hear a lot similarities here, too.

Recorded in March, 2010, in Christ Church Deer Park, the sound appears moderately distanced, just enough to provide both detail and bloom. We get the impression of being at a live occasion, with a somewhat warm, resonant acoustic, the three instruments blending smoothly, if losing a little something in ultimate transparency. Yet the recording is close enough to supply a pleasantly realistic impact.

JJP