Modern Horn Trios Přemysl Vojta, Ye Wu, Florence Millet

• Hans Abrahamsen (b.1952): Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano:
• 1Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 1, Serenade03:49
• 2Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 2, Blues02:15
• 3Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 3, Arabesque01:59
• 4Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 4, Marcia funebre03:36
• 5Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 5, Scherzo misterioso02:27
• 6Abrahamsen: Six Pieces for Horn, Violin and Piano: No. 6, For the children01:30
• John Cage (1912 - 1992): Music For Three:
• 7Cage: Music For Three05:09
• Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950): 4 Petites Pièces, Op. 32a:
• 8Koechlin: 4 Petites Pièces, Op. 32a: No. 1, Andante03:02
• 9Koechlin: 4 Petites Pièces, Op. 32a: No. 2, Très modéré02:17
• 10Koechlin: 4 Petites Pièces, Op. 32a: No. 3, Allegretto quasi andantino02:19
• 11Koechlin: 4 Petites Pièces, Op. 32a: No. 4, Scherzando01:05
• Hermann Schroeder (1904 - 1984): Trio No. 2 for Horn, Violin and Piano in F Major, Op. 40:
• 12Schroeder: Trio No. 2 for Horn, Violin and Piano in F Major, Op. 40: I. Andante sostenuto04:40
• 13Schroeder: Trio No. 2 for Horn, Violin and Piano in F Major, Op. 40: II. Adagio05:25
• 14Schroeder: Trio No. 2 for Horn, Violin and Piano in F Major, Op. 40: III. Presto scherzando03:29
• György Ligeti (1923 - 2006): Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano:
• 15Ligeti: Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano: I. Andantino con tenerezza06:57
• 16Ligeti: Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano: II. Vivacissimo molto ritmico05:21
• 17Ligeti: Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano: III. Alla marcia03:13
• 18Ligeti: Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano: IV. Lamento. Adagio08:35
• Total Runtime01:07:08

Info for Modern Horn Trios

The combination of French horn, piano and violin was initiated by Johannes Brahms with his op. 40. There are currently very few works for this genre, but modern composers are busy adding ideas. Two world premiere recordings make this unusual album very attractive not only for friends of the French horn; the sounds and sound combinations are stirring.

The Dane Hans Abrahamsen wrote his Seks Stykker for horn, violin and piano in 1984 for a Danish Radio concert featuring the Danish premiere of György Ligeti's Horn Trio. Abrahamsen is one of the few composers who have studied the horn, and the instrument appears correspondingly frequently in his scores.

John Cage opens up another perspective on the horn trio. Cage's Music for Three is a realisation of his "Music for", a collection of 17 parts that can be put together in any instrumentation, each possible combination being a fully valid version of the piece. When selecting the pieces for this album, Ye Wu, Přemysl Vojta and Florence Millet focused on the quality of the musical substance as a criterion.

They also found what they were looking for in the Frenchman Charles Koechlin. Koechlin was born in Paris in 1867 to a wealthy Alsatian family. After initially studying engineering, he decided to pursue music in the early 1890s and became a student of Jules Massenet and later Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire.

After intensive research and preliminary studies, he also chose the Second Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano op. 40 by Hermann Schroeder, a professor at the Cologne Conservatoire. In 1967, the piece takes its cue from composers such as Paul Hindemith and Richard Strauss in a retrospective style.

Premysl Vojta, horn
Ye Wu, violin
Florence Millet, piano

Přemysl Vojta
winner of the "International ARD Music Competition" 2010, tours worldwide as a soloist with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Prague Philharmonia and the Kanagawa Symphony Orchestra. After his successful debut at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Přemysl was awarded the prestigious Beethoven Ring, past recipients of which include artists such as Igor Levit, Lisa Batiashvili and Gustavo Dudamel. Přemysl Vojta has received much international acclaim for his exceptional album productions, including one complete recording of the horn concertos by Joseph and Michael Haydn, and his album "Metamorphosis", which was recorded using three different types of horns.

In October 2021, Přemysl Vojta was appointed as a professor of horn at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen to succeed the horn legends Hermann Baumann and Frank Lloyd. In the past, he has also taught at Berlin University of the Arts and the Cologne University of Music and Dance.

At the age of 10, Přemysl Vojta received his first horn education from Olga Voldánová at the Brno Music School. A talented competitive swimmer at the time, Vojta had to choose between sports and music, but soon enough, his heart was set on the instrument. Later, he pursed his studies at the Prague Conservatory under the mentorship of Bedřich Tylšar (1998 -2004) and at Berlin University of the Arts under Christian – Friedrich Dallmann (2004 - 2010). While he was a student, Přemysl Vojta had already started his career as a principal hornist at the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, and continues to hold the same position at the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne since December, 2015.

Vojta is a member of the Carousel Ensemble, PhilHarmonia Octets, Breeze Quintets and Dispar Trios. His chamber music partners include Tobias Koch, Annelien van Wauwe, Fabrice Millischer, Oliver Triendl, the Pražák Quartet and the Armida Quartet.

Přemysl Vojta plays a Mod. 3 double horn from Klaus Fehr Horns, natural horns from Jungwirth and Curtois Paris and the F horn by Daniel Fuchs Vienna.

Ye Wu
Chinese violinist Ye Wu took her first violin lessons in her home town Shanghai before continuing her studies in the USA as well as in Berlin, where she graduated in 2007 as a “Meisterschülerin” (= master pupil) of Guy Braunstein, the leader of the Berlin Philharmonic. A sought-after violinist, she has since been invited to perform with many orchestras, playing under such conductors as Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, and Valery Gergiev. Ye Wu is the winner of several international violin competitions, and enjoys a global reputation as a soloist. Since 2014, she has been the leader of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne.

Florence Millet
of Franco-German descent, performs with orchestra, in recitals and ensembles in venues across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Conductors she worked with include Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Elena Schwarz, David Robertson, Simon Blech, Heinz Holliger, Julia Jones, Jonathan Darlington, David Marlow.

Her recordings for the labels Centaur, Sony, DG, Wergo,Triton, Accord and Erato were praised on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 2023 the new releases include trios by Ligeti, Abrahamsen, Koechlin, Schroeder and Cage for Deutsche Grammophon; the rediscovered piano concerto op.31 by Adolph Busch, along with his Solo and Duo piano music for CPO; Morton Feldmann’s « Piano and String Quartet » (with the Jack Quartet) for Bastille, a monographic John Cage CD for Deutsche Grammophon and a thematic solo recording including Bach, Janacek, Kurtag, Aperghis, Kapralova, Rihm, Satie, Ablinger, Maminova, Mompou. She is a founding member of the Lions Gate Trio since 1988. Residencies were held in Tanglewood Festival, Yale University, U. of N.Carolina-Greensboro, the Fairfield Library and University of W. Hartford, CT, where they created the « Ode to Joy » Festival.

She plays Chamber Music with members of Berlin Philharmonic, Paris or WDR orchestras, and the Sine Nomine, Miami, Tbilissi, Jack and Danel String Quartets.

She has worked closely with main voices in composition: Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, Johannes Schöllhorn, Jörg Widman, Hans Werner Henze, Hans Abrahamsen, Philippe Manoury, Steve Reich, Henri Dutilleux, George Crumb und Tristan Murail. She played with the Ensemble Intercontemporain from 1992-2000.

A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, Millet received her Masters and Doctoral Degrees at State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied under Gilbert Kalish. Her other mentors were Leon Fleisher, Paul Badura Skoda, Peter Serkin and Jean Hubeau. Florence Millet ist artistic adviser for the Lichterfeld Foundation, promoting tolerance, intercultural understanding and creator of the Echospore.de platform which propagates music from persecuted composers. Recordings, videos and concerts are planed internationally with partners Musica non Grata Prag, Deutsche Bank Stiftung and German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She curated « Cité des Dames » and explores multidisciplinary concert formats with actors, choreography and dance (Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal) and Arts at the Tony Cragg Foundation, Van der Heydt Museum, Phillipps Collection or in lecture recitals.

Her voice and playing can be heard in radio presentations on France Musique, WDR , NDR, Deutschlandfunk, RYTBF or in lecture recitals.

A film is currently in the making about the IRCAM commission and recording of a large work for piano and electronic written for her.

Booklet for Modern Horn Trios