Search - Johannes Brahms, Gyorgy Ligeti, Richard Goode :: Horn Trios by Brahms & Ligeti

Great imaginative hommage between polar romantics

Rachel Abbinanti (tusai1@aol.com) | Chicago | 09/13/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gyorgy Ligeti indeed tests himself with this arduous trio, for an unlikely constitution of violin, horn and piano. The blend here is non-existent, yet Ligeti embarks on a new musical language one that will prove to serve him the remainder of the decade and well into the Nineties with forever growing body intriguing works as the"Violin Concerto" and the "Piano Concerto" and the 26 odd Piano Solo Etudes. This Ligeti trio has classical proportions and admirably resolves the timbral problems of the mismatched cross-bred instruments. The "first movement" exposes this timbral miscongruence, with high pinched-like tones in the horn with nasal sounding harmonics in the violin, a sublime ugliness results. The piano here is a mere visitor,simply punctuating this dialogue between the horn and the violin for the greater part of this four movement,very long work. When we get to the "second movement" the 'vivacissimo molto ritmico" Ligeti employs a running asymmetrical scale c-d-e-f-gb-ab-bb-cb, with a rhythmic pattern 3-3-2 . He also utilizes this in his"Etude #4" Fanfares" for piano solo,only with a 3-2-3 rhythm. The result anyway really "cooks" with its incessant unrelenting drive ascending. The piano's role here is very much a percussion instrument, which is necessary to colour the proceedings , but also has gentle sublime moments. The "third movement" 'alla marcia' again is a tour de force"barn-burner", another romp and bop with rhythmic jabs,syncopation,twists and turns with atonal chords displayed, pure,raw rhythm. You have devoted interpreters here to, with seasoned pianist Alan Feinberg who devotes his creativity to contemporary piano expression.The Brahms "trio" is a first in the history of music with his penchant for forever newer timbral problems to resolve,as the clarinet sonatas he wrote the latter years of his life as well as the A-minor trio Op.111 with clarinet,cello and piano."