18 BRAHMS | CLARINET SONATAS ∙ HORN TRIO Johannes Brahms’s love of the horn was instilled by his father Johann Jakob, who introduced him to the instrument. It was to follow him throughout his life, and throughout his works; Brahms gave the horn a prominent role on many occasions, for example in the two Serenades op.11 and op.16, which reflect his bond with the eighteenth century, with Handel and his open-air music that Brahms admired so much and whose spirit wafts through the Horn Trio; we also find it in the marvellous Vier Gesänge for female chorus with two horns and harp op.17, in his symphonies (think of the splendid horn solo which melts into the tender coda of the Allegro non troppo of the Second Symphony) and right up to the Double Concerto for violin and cello op.102, not forgetting the famous introduction to the Second Piano Concerto op.83. In 1864/65, at the height of his creative powers, Brahms composed his Trio in E flat major op.40. He conceived it for the natural horn, aptly named Waldhorn (literally, ‘forest horn’) in German, with its remarkable colour and pure lyricism. This choice says a great deal about Brahms, about how he felt and wished to represent by means of this evocative ‘acoustic’ element, the vast silent yet inhabited expanses of the Black Forest, its shadows and clearings, its unfathomable poetry.
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