Kevin Houben

Adagio op. 40 (Fanfarenorchester)

Johannes Brahms can be considered to be one of the top composers of the nineteenth century chamber music. He was a giant in this field and an eminent successor of Beethoven and Haydn. A masterpiece from his chamber music oeuvre is the trio in Eb opus 40 for piano, violin and natural French horn.

In 1865, the year of his Horn trio, Brahms's mother Christiane died. It's well known that he fostered deep feelings for her. The slow part of the Horn trio with the tempo indication Adagio Mesto (sad) can be considered as a lamentation for his mother.

The first performance of the piece took place in Zürich on 28th November 1865 and it was published a year later in November 1866.

In this version for Wind Band Kevin Houben stays as true as possible to the original. The result is a deep and dark orchestration of the wonderful Adagio Mesto. A challenge for any orchestra and extremely suitable as concert piece.