Györgi Ligeti: Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn (Interpretation experiment)

[Steffen Fahl]

It is many years ago that I studied, played and taught some of Ligetis Studies like "Arc en ciel", "Cordes vides" and "Automne en Varsovie" which I all loved very much.
So here I tried a little Interpretation experiment with G.Ligetis Horntrio. (Which in some aspects prefigure some of Ligetis Pianostudies of the first Volume: Movement II prefigue "Fanfares" and Movement IV prefigures the melodic character of "Automne in Varsovie"). What makes this Trio quite interesting for Pianists interested in 20th century music.

We all know, that Ligeti was strongly influenced by Brahms Horntrio Eb-major op.40. Meanwhile at Brahms times the modern Horn with Valves was well established he demanded nevertheless to use the more difficult to play natural horn.
Obviously Ligeti was inspred by that fact to demand the Horsoloists to play the modern Horn in many passages as if it has no valves and would be restricted on the natural Partialtones. In his romanian Concert he went even one step farer to let 12 hornists play natural horns for each note of the chromatic scale. It seems to be a bit like some moments of the late Beethoven, where the composer composes things the Instrument did not yet seem to be ready to do in Beethovens time Here Ligeti expects the poor Solohornist to do imitate something which only would do 12 natural hornist correct.
Since I useally realise all my recordings based on high quality Samplelibraries I decided for this piece just use most recent sampllibraries of natural horns in every demanded tune to let them play all passages indicated by Ligeti to be played "like" a natural horn.

Here comes
I. Andante con tenerezza
II. Vivacissimo molto ritmico

I hope you like it.

[Steffen Fahl]

And here are the the other two movements:
III. Alla marcia
IV. Lamento adagio
I hope you like it