Chants d’Amour
Lyrical confessions of a horn player

Music is the undisputed ally of the universal language called love. Composers
of the romantic era have welcomed the noble sound of the horn as a perfect
carrier for pouring their turbulent and passion time into sound. Troughout
the 18th and 19th century, a long and continuous exchange of ideas between
players, composers and instrument manufacturers transformed the crude hunting
horn into a refined solo instrument. In the Belgian context, this led to the
development of a particular and distinctive “Lyrical” playing style from 1850
onwards.

A clear example of this evolution is the concert repertoire of one of the heralds
of the romantic Belgian horn school, Alphonse Stenebruggen (Liège
1824-Strasbourg 1895). The playlist of Chant d’Amour is entirely shaped by
pieces played by this Liègeois during his nearly 50 year-long international playing
carreer. Stenebruggen’s encounters with the great and mighty of his time
serve as a great imaginatory source: his cont