The trio for Horn, violin and piano by Johannes Brahms was composed in 1865, the same year in which he started composing his famous “German Requiem”. Both pieces commemorate his beloved mother who died earlier that year and, in both pieces, one can feel deep grief together with a great amount of comfort. As a composer, Brahms always preferred an intimate expression, and therefore neglected the musical genre known to be probably the most extrovert of all genres: the opera. His chamber music resembles a friendly discourse, in which each one of the instruments can appear as a soloist for a few moments,and immediately returnto accompanying the other instruments. It seems that Brahms managed to let the instruments “share” the chamber piece more fairly and equally than any other composer. The Horn trio is the only piece by Brahms that was written following a model created by Beethoven called “Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia” (fantasy-like Sonata). Beethoven used it for the first time in his piano Sonata op. 27 no. 1. The model consists of four movements: slow-fast-slow-fast and,as opposed to the traditional sonatas in which the most important movement is the first movement, the focal point of the “Sonata quasi una Fantasia” is the last movement. The trio section of the second movement (Scherzo) and the slow third movement of Brahms’s Horn trio express deep sorrow while the other movements are joyous and express great vital life force.