Brahms, Duvernoy, Koechlin, Kahn - Horn Trios

The Guardian 60

Felix Klieser (horn) Andrej Bielow (violin), Herbert Schuch (piano)
(Berlin Classics)

The combination of horn, violin and piano is so unusual that only Brahms’s masterpiece is a familiar repertory piece. But the enterprising horn soloist Felix Klieser has sought out some companion works and created an engaging sequence. Frédéric Nicolas Duvernoy’s two amiable, flowing trios from the earlier 19th century are not going to change the world, but Charles Koechlin’s quirkily inventive Four Small Pieces from the turn of the century are a delightful find, really characterful, and Robert Kahn’s single-movement 1923 Serenade is an attractive novelty. You could not possibly tell that the remarkable Klieser, who was born without arms, instead plays the horn using his toes. In the Brahms trio he is gloriously eloquent.