Goldscheider Horn Trio

Sunday, 2nd February 2025 – 3.00pm (Note earlier starting-time)

Performers

Ben Goldscheider (French horn)
Benjamin Baker (violin)
Huw Watkins (piano)

What a delight to be joined this afternoon by this exceptional trio of musicians! Ben, Benjamin and Huw visit Hexham with a programme featuring probably the most famous and celebrated piece in the horn trio repertoire – the trio by Brahms – and Ligeti’s companion piece, the Hommage à Brahms.

Winner of the brass category at the BBC’s Young Musician competition in 2016, Ben Goldscheider is now principal horn in Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He has played concertos with several of Europe’s leading orchestras and is a busy chamber musician performing with partners such as Daniel Barenboim himself, Martha Argerich and Stephen Hough – and his two partners this afternoon.

Ben Baker is much in demand as an international soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights include concerts with the London Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He is also founder and director of the At the World’s Edge chamber music festival in his native New Zealand.

Appointed MBE for services to music in the 2021 birthday honours, Huw Watkins has a double career, busy as a soloist and chamber musician in concert halls across Europe and North America, and as a composer. He has written for ensembles as varied as the London Symphony and Hallé orchestras, and the Nash Ensemble. He has also been composer-in-residence at the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival.

‘The horn soloist, Benjamin Goldscheider, was superb.’ – The Times

‘The fine violinist Benjamin Baker….brought virtuosity, refinement and youthful exuberance to a daunting programme.’ – New York Times

‘What an amazing musician Watkins is.’ – The Telegraph

Programme

Mozart (arr. Naumann) Horn Quintet in E flat major, K.407
Ligeti Trio for violin, horn and piano (‘Hommage à Brahms’)
Watkins Coruscation & Reflection for violin and piano
Brahms Horn Trio in E flat major, op. 40