JOHANNES BRAHMS

 

Horn Trio Op. 40

Violin Sonata Op. 78

7 Fantasien Op. 116

 

Isabelle Faust - violin

Alexander Melnikov - piano

Teunis van der Zwart - horn

 

Brahms was especially fond of the sound of the natural horn, which he saw as the embodiment of Romantic lyricism. Although the valve horn had begun to replace it in the early 19th century, it was for the older instrument, the Waldhorn, that he wrote his Trio Op. 40, today still the summit of the repertoire for its unusual forces. Here three young musicians, graduates of harmonia mundi, attempt to reconstruct the trio’s original sound as precisely as possible.

 

The renowned magazine Gramophone gave Isabelle Faust its Young Artist of the Year Award for her first recording of sonatas by Béla Bartók, in 1997. Whilst not neglecting the classical and romantic repertoire, Isabelle Faust is a noted interpreter of the great twentieth-century works of Feldman, Jolivet, Ligeti and Scelsi. She has premiered concertos by Werner Egk and Thierry Lancino, A Child Reliquary by Richard Danielpour, Messiaen’s Fantasie and works dedicated to her by Jörg Widmann. In 2009 she will premiere violin concertos dedicated to her by Michael Jarrell and Thomas Larcher.

 

Born in 1975, Cédric Tiberghien studied with Leon Fleisher, Alexis Weissenberg and Peter Frankl. The year 2005 marked a turning point in his international career: he was named as one of the twelve prestigious BBC New Generation Artists. For harmonia mundi, Cédric Tiberghien has recorded four recitals devoted to Chopin and Brahms (Ballades), to Bach (Partitas), to Debussy (Estampes, Images) and to Beethoven (Variations), and more recently Brahms’ Concerto No.1 and Martinů’s Toccata, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek.

 

After winning a prize in the Bad Harzburg Natural Horn Competition 1989, Teunis van der Zwart decided to become a worldwide ambassador for his instrument. Since then he has made numerous recordings and concert tours with ensembles specialising in early music, such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Nachtmusique Wind Sextet, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bach Collegium Japan, and Collegium Vocale Gent. As a soloist he has worked with Frans Brüggen, Philippe Herreweghe, and René Jacobs. Teunis van der Zwart is the principal horn player of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and The Orchestra of the 18th Century. With Freiburg he has recorded Mozart's horn concertos for harmonia mundi.

 

Harmonia Mundi HMC901981