Brahms Horn Trio with Wendy Chen

Join the Charleston Symphony for an elevated Chamber Music experience this season! Enjoy an intimate evening of ensemble music at the beloved Charleston Library Society that will showcase the brilliant talent of your CSO musicians. Performances will offer an exciting range of chamber music literature and robust programming.

We are excited to feature renowned pianist Wendy Chen on our 2022-23 series finale. No stranger to Charleston, Wendy participated in the Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Music Series for 15 years under the leadership of Charles Wadsworth. At the age of fifteen, Wendy Chen debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor André Previn. In 1990 she became the youngest winner ever of the National Chopin Competition, was one of the inaugural recipients of the Irving S. Gilmore Young Artists Award and was named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for the Arts. Since then, her career has flourished, adding Young Concert Artists International Auditions and Washington International Competition to her numerous awards.

Johannes Brahms, a horn player during his youth, composed the Trio in E Flat Major for Horn, Violin and Piano, Op. 40 in 1865. This work commemorates the death of Brahms’s mother, Christiane, earlier that year. This piece was originally written for natural horn, rather than the valve horn that we commonly see today. And despite his special affection for the horn, Brahms wrote only one chamber music composition with the instrument.

While spending time in the Black Forest in the springtime reflecting on fond memories of his mother, listeners will hear rich themes and deep lyricism throughout the work. Brahms reflects not only on this difficult milestone in his life, but of the happy memories and recovery at the end of mourning during the lively tempo of the final movement.

This program will also feature works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Eric Ewazen, and Francis Poulenc.