Albin Frehse, born on 10 February 1878 in Leipzig, played for many years the principal horn of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. His teacher was Arno Rudolph. Before Leipzig he had played in the Magdeburg Orchestra, the Royal Opera in Warsaw and the orchestra Hans Winterstein. Frehse was from 1 Juni 1903-1939 hornist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and professor of the Leipzig Conservatory (1926 - 1958, professorship 1948). In 1973, he died in Leipzig.
For many years he was a member of the Wind Quintet of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. His students include Wilhelm Fuchs, Hermann Maerker, Erich Penzel, Waldemar Schieber and Amand Schwantge. Frehse composed many works for the horn, including four horn concertos for first horn and a special (study) concerto for second horn. On 3/4/1968 played the solo horn player of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Waldemar Schieber, in honor of the 90th birthday of Frehse his Concerto for Horn in a Gewandhaus concert. The nephew of Albin Frehse, Karl Otto August Frehse (1891 - 1965), played from 1919 - 1956 in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the second and later the 4th horn.
These 41 "exercise" Trios for 3 horns came in possession of the publisher by his teacher Waldemar Schieber, which studied these already in his student days. Frehse had the idea in addition to composing wonderful music , to give the hornist the opportunity to play unusual tones, rhythms and beats. The bass key of the 3rd horn is a "bass horn key", which is an octave lower notated than sounding. The 41 trios by Frehse are, despite its understatement as "Exercise trios", beautiful chamber music for the concert.
