In this installment of the series Soloists of the Canadian Brass, Jeff Nelson is featured in Brahms' Horn Trio, Op. 40, and an adaptation of Mozart's Horn Quintet, K. 407. The novelty here is Tony Rickard's arrangement for horn, violin, and piano of Mozart's quintet, originally for horn, violin, two violas, and cello. The horn trio is a felicitous ensemble, but its established repertoire is lamentably small; besides the Brahms, the trios by Ligeti and Lennox Berkeley are the only ones played with much regularity, so any ...
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In this installment of the series Soloists of the Canadian Brass, Jeff Nelson is featured in Brahms' Horn Trio, Op. 40, and an adaptation of Mozart's Horn Quintet, K. 407. The novelty here is Tony Rickard's arrangement for horn, violin, and piano of Mozart's quintet, originally for horn, violin, two violas, and cello. The horn trio is a felicitous ensemble, but its established repertoire is lamentably small; besides the Brahms, the trios by Ligeti and Lennox Berkeley are the only ones played with much regularity, so any viable addition to their company is welcome. Rickard's version is a fairly literal adaptation; it's hard to imagine having the nerve to stray far from Mozart's original, but it's also hard to imagine that Mozart would not have created a more inventive keyboard part if he had written it for piano. Still, it's an entirely serviceable and even graceful version, and one that deserves to be taken up by ensembles looking for a companion piece for the Brahms. The Brahms gets off to an...
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