Albin Frehse, born on 10 February 1878 in Leipzig, played for many years as 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 of Hans Winterstein. Frehse was from 1 June 1903 to 1939 a horn player of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (until 1946 he still played as a wartime auxiliary) and professor at 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 Märker, Erich Penzel, Waldemar Schieber and Amand Schwantge. Frehse composed numerous works for his instrument, the horn, including four horn concertos, one of which was printed for high horn and a special (study) concerto for low horn. On 3 April 1968, the Gewandhaus Orchestra's solo horn player, Waldemar Schieber, played Frehse's Concerto for Horn in a Gewandhaus concert in honor of Frehse's 90th birthday. Albin Frehse's nephew, Karl Otto August Frehse (1891–1965), played the 2nd and later the 4th horn in the Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1919 to 1956.
The present 41 "exercise" trios for 3 horns were passed on to the editor by his teacher Waldemar Schieber, who had already studied them during his student days with Frehse. Frehse's didactic idea behind the trios was, alongside wonderful music-making, to introduce hornists to unusual keys, rhythms, and time signatures. The bass clef of the 3rd horn is a so-called "horn bass clef," which is notated an octave lower than it sounds. Anton Reicha, too, incorporated didactic compositional ideas into his 24 Trios for 3 Horns. Despite Frehse's understatement in calling them "exercise trios," his trios are beautiful chamber music for the concert hall.
