La Loba – Katie Johnson & Kirstin Ihde

Katie Johnson, Horn 

Kirstin Ihde, Piano

La Loba celebrates select pieces of music from a cannon of works written for famed Norwegian hornist, Frøydis Ree Wekre. Works written for Wekre come from varied sources of inspiration, but all rise to her masterful abilities on the horn. These pieces all stood out to Katie Johnson because the composers have so eloquently juxtaposed strength and beauty through their music. Played beautifully!

Trygve Madsen composed his Sonata for Horn and Piano, op. 24 in 1978 for Frøydis Ree Wekre. Wekre premiered the Sonata at the 1978 Scandinavian Brass Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden. This work celebrates the soaring melodic capabilities of the horn while presenting a lush harmonic context that is a signature of Madsen’s compositions for horn.

Litany for the 21st Century, op. 39, was composed in 1989 by Wolfgang Plagge. The work was premiered by Frøydis Ree Wekre in Banff, Alberta, Canada the same year. This virtuosic Sonata explores the varied emotions surrounding the building of the Berlin Wall. The subject matter of A Litany for the 21st Century, has proved itself to be timeless.

Sonata, op. 88 is the third of five horn sonatas Wolfgang Plagge composed for his friend and colleague, Frøydis Ree Wekre. The work was composed in 1995 and premiered by Wekre and Plagge in Oslo, Norway in 1996. Although this work does not have a programmatic element like his op. 39, Wolfgang Plagge masterfully uses modern compositional techniques throughout this Sonata to create a somewhat traditional sound.

Andrea Clearfield, composed Songs of the Wolf for her friend and colleague, Frøydis Ree Wekre in 1994. The work was premiered by Wekre at the 1994 International Horn Workshop. Clearfield drew on multiple inspirations for this work. The first movement, Wolf Night, was inspired by the poem, Songs of the Wolf, by Manfred Fischbeck. The second movement and title track of this CD was inspired by the mythical story of La Loba from Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Clearfield says of this work, “I wanted to write a work for her that would have a relationship to the north, the woods, mythology and the essence of the wolf.” For this reason, the true muse for this work may be Frøydis herself.