In the 1860s Johannes Brahms composed one of the most beautiful song cycles of the romantic era: Die schöne Magelone. Now baritone Christian Gerhaher, a lied singer of international renown, has joined forces with his longstanding accompanist Gerold Huber to record Brahms’s masterpiece. For Gerhaher, named singer of the year in 2016 by the German trade journal Opernwelt and awarded the coveted Wigmore Medal in England for “outstanding musicianship in opera, oratorio and song”, the project is a dream come true.

The 15 poems that Brahms fashioned into “romances” are taken from Ludwig Tieck’s novella The Wondrous Romance of Magelone the Fair and Peter Count of Provence (1797). Inspired by a medieval legend, it tells of the love of the valiant knight Peter of Provence for Magelone, the daughter of the King of Naples.

In 2011 Christian Gerhaher commissioned the well-known German writer Martin Walser to produce a new version of the text, which he then premièred in Coburg together with Gerold Huber and Walser himself.

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REVIEWS:

It is quite clear that the singer and his longstanding accompanist are absolutely at one—they have been performing together since the beginning. Sound is good and all is clear and well defined. For those seeking a commanding and modern German singer in Brahms—no quibbles, this is for you.

– Fanfare

Gerhaher is more compelling in this music even than Fischer-Dieskau is in his classic recording with Sviatoslav Richter. Gerhaher and Gerold Huber sound more athletic in the vigorous songs, and the baritone is more rapt and spiritual in the famous Ruhe.

– Sunday Times (UK)

Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder–Walzer (1869 & 1875), Op. 52 and Op. 65, are a cheerful, short, witty set of songs full of anger, joy and rejection. These part-songs are accompanied by one piano, with four hands and any number of voices can perform any selection. These enchanting works are performed as part of Barbara Hannigan’s Momentum project, which teams up new talent with more established performers. Here, tenor Nicky Spence, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton are joined by three rising stars (mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, bass William Thomas and pianist Dylan Perez) in these love songs said to have been motivated by Brahms’s unrequited love for Clara Schumann.

This eagerly-awaited new release sees Simon Trpceski reunite with conductor Cristian Măcelaru to record Brahms Piano Concertos. Their unrivalled chemistry, paramount in Brahms’s chamber-like concertos, is on full display in these new performances which puts the two artists’ musical affinity in the spotlight. These two contrasting concertos, one beginning in darkness, the other in light, mark Brahms’s major contribution to the genre. With Trpceski’s flawless technique and sensitive playing, pianophiles are in for a treat. Macelaru’s orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester, joins the pair to complete the line-up; a perfect companion to their previous album, Shostakovich Piano Concertos, which garnered numerous accolades (BBC Music Magazine Concerto Choice, Le Choix de France Musique, among others).

Malcolm Martineau is the brilliant initiator of this new one-of-a-kind series on Linn. The Brahms Songbook has set the unprecedented goal to record Brahms’s lieder by complete opus number. For its first instalment, Martineau has teamed up with famed Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans in the expansive Romanzen aus Magelone, Op. 33. Composed between 1861 and 1869, the youthful, inevitably romantic fifteen-song cycle tells the story of a noble warrior, a Neapolitan princess and a sultan’s daughter. The operatic-like cycle goes through the emotions of each character as the tale unfolds. Oliemans’s busy stage career and ‘communicative singing style’ (The New York Times) make him the perfect fit. The album concludes with the virtually unknown ‘Regenlied’ cycle: four songs that were later included in Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59. Volume 2 will see Dame Sarah Connolly and Hanno Müller-Brachmann share the bill.

The unsuspected summits of virtuosity Playing fast and loud... Letting the rapidity of your fingers go to your head... Is this really the definition of virtuosity? Virtuosity has it's origins in 'virtue'; a set of moral qualities, before evolving into something purely technical. By choosing works by Brahms, Mozart, and Liszt, Michel Dalberto will take us on the lengthy journey towards an increased understanding of these pieces. The difficulty of performing them is just one of the ways in which the texts take on their full meaning. So that the scores can reveal the full genius of their creator. Their humanity.

All the sacred spirit of the Romantic era is embodied in these pages: Gabriel Faure's Requiem offers itself without artifice, frank and generous. Begun in 1887 and carefully reworked over the years, the work unfolds with a spiritual fervour bathed in a halo of crystalline honesty, carried by a fluid choral writing. Victor Jacob conducts the Orchestre de l'Opera Royal in revealing the 1893 version, the first complete edition of this masterpiece. Selected works by Brahms, Schubert, Rossini, and Rheinberger bridge the divine and the secular, transforming this album into a journey steeped in depth and melancholy, where the purity of the score draws the listener's mind into unsuspected reveries.

This year, legendary cellist Antonio Meneses celebrates his 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of winning first prize and the gold medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition. Shortly after that triumph Antonio made a renowned recording of Brahms’ Double Concerto with conductor Herbert von Karajan. He revisits the composer’s music on his 11th recording for AVIE and his first of Brahms’ two cello sonatas, generously paired with a selection of lieder arrangements. Antonio mines Brahms’ baritonal sound world, extracting the full expressive range of the cello. Similar qualities infuse a selection of seven Lieder in arrangements that sound so effective on the cello that one cannot help but wonder whether somewhere in the back of his mind Brahms had the sound of the instrument – he was, after all, an accomplished player in his youth, and it would remain central to his chamber music output throughout his life.

In February 2001, Franz Bartolomey, principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded Johannes Brahms' famous First Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 38 in E minor, and an early work, Richard Strauss' Sonata in F major, in the Grand Broadcasting Hall of the RadioKulturhaus. Twenty-five years later, two years after his father's death, his son, cellist Matthias Bartolomey, together with pianist Ariane Haering, now presents the album 'HOMMAGE' with the same programme, supplemented by an arrangement of Schubert's Moment Musical, Op. 3. For Matthias Bartolomey, his father's recording, and in particular his interpretation, marks an extremely formative period in his musical career. The sonatas by Brahms and Strauss were part of the soundscape of Matthias's childhood home from his earliest youth. Similar to Richard Strauss's 'Don Quixote', he knew every note, every phrasing, and every portamento of his father's playing by heart.

This new release is a fully loaded album with a unique combo of violin concertos by Johannes Brahms and his contemporary friends, Amanda Maier and Julius Röntgen. Furthermore, the album includes a brand-new Brahms cadenza, written by award-winning Swedish composer, Mats Larsson Gothe. This is the first Swedish studio recording of Brahms’s concerto with one of Sweden’s foremost violinists, Cecilia Zilliacus, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and renowned Estonian conductor, Kristiina Poska.

”Cecilia is extremely musical and living proof that it’s always possible to pursue unusual ideas” (The Strad, 2018). Over the years, audiences have embraced Zilliacus’ equally tantalizing and warm interpretations of everything from the great classical and Romantic works to contemporary chamber music and collaborations across genres – from the most prominent symphony orchestras, conductors, and composers in Europe to jazz musicians, folk musicians, singer songwriters, and others.

For Brahms, folk songs were sources of musical inspiration, not subjects for academic study. The songs from Books 6 and 7 of the Deutsche Volkslieder exemplify how Brahms’ distinctive and expressive accompaniments brought unique qualities to these songs, how he intensified certain verses to draw out their power, or allowed the piano its own revealing melodic phrases. In Book 7 the songs are divided between a lead singer and a chorus, adding fresh musical possibilities. In the Volkskinderlieder (‘Children’s Folk Songs’) Brahms’ economy and deftness turn lullabies into works of art.

Two historic recordings with famous conductor Karl Bohm and the Swiss/Hungarian pianist Geza Anda. The Mozart concerto dates from 1974 and marks the artist's last appearance with orchestra in Salzburg.

Trumpet and organ - and yet conceivably removed from the usual of this popular instrumentation: that is "O Mensch, gib Acht!" - is not only an eye-catcher but also a programme, when the world-class trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and the Essen Cathedral organist Sebastian Küchler-Blessing place contemporary works, which were written as a reaction to the horrors of the Third Reich, in dialogue with arrangements of Romantic works: in addition to the titular slow movement from Mahler's Third, "Kol Nidrei" by Max Bruch and Brahms' "O Tod, wie bitter bist Du" are heard. Zsigmond Szathmáry, who was highly esteemed by György Ligeti, wrote an "...ad memoriam..." about the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin especially for this production. The brother and sister duo Kristina Schoch (recorder) and Andre Schoch (trumpet player with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) also participated in other works, such as four epigrams based on Hebrew songs for recorder and organ pedal by Otfried Büsing from Freiburg. Recorded on the Rieger organ in Essen Cathedral, which was rebuilt after the destruction of the war, war is raging on European soil at the same time. Gib Acht!" has ever been more topical.

Born in Moscow in the family of musicians, Shorena Tsintsabadze began her musical career in early age with her mother. She graduated the Moscow Conservatory academic music college and Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of the People's Artist of Russia, professor Z. A. Ignatyeva, who represented the class of outstanding pianist, Professor S. E. Finberg. During this period she became a prize-winner at the International Piano Competitions, such as: the Classical Heritage Association International Competition (Moscow, 1999), the Grand International Piano Competition (Paris, 1999), the Ibla grand Prize (Italy, 2000), where Shorena won the special Jordanian Prize for "Outstanding Musicianship and Talent". In 2000 the American label "Angelok" recorded the works by S. Rachmaninoff as her first CD with the Russian Federal Orchestra lead by Maestro V. Jordania. In 2008 Shorena Tsintsabadze, signed the contract with The World's Leading Classical Music Label "Naxos" and recorded the masterpieces by S. M. Lyapunov with the Russian Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by D. Yablonsky. In 2010 her album with works by S. M. Lyapunov included all his Piano concertos, Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes, for piano & orchestra, Op. 28. Steven J Haller (American Record Guide, March 2011) stated in it's review of the album that "Moscow-born Shorena Tsintsabadze seems born to play this music; she embraces it like Van Cliburn did the Tchaikovsky, warmly lyrical and impassioned and blessed with a wide-ranging span of the keyboard from full bass register to glittering, yet never clattery top end. ". Also, The Guardian reported "The performances are terrific, with monumental playing from Shorena Tsintsabadze... " "Moscow-born pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze catches the fire and the poetry of the music, meets it's pyrotechnical demands with relative ease and imparts a wonderful sense of imagination to her interpretations. " wrote Robert Cummings (Classical Net, January 2011). Ian Lac (MusicWeb International) mentioned that "... Tsintsabadze brings to bear a light and delicate poetic touch with unbridled passion reserved for the Concerto's climactic passages. " In 2015 HBDirect. Com introduced Tsintsabadze's album in the list of the Best Selling Naxos CDs. In 2013 she made post-graduate studies of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Professor, People's Artist of Russia Sergei L. Dorensky, who has mentioned Shorena as a "Brightly presented pianist with unlimited technical abilities and bright individuality. " During the study in Dorensky's class she had permanent consultancies with such outstanding musicians as Nikolai Lugansky, Andrey Pisarev, Pavel Nersessian and Liza Ginzburg (daughter of outstanding musician and pianist Grigory Ginzburg). She performed at the world's major concert halls and collaborated with renowned conductors and Orchestras. She has appeared in broadcasts on TV and radio of Russia, USA, Canada and Europe, etc. In 2015 Shorena Tsintsabadze has founded "Young Musicians International Association of Georgia. " The primary mission of organization is to help young talented musicians with the motivation, to support in creativity and career advancement, for which the organization is planning various events in the future. In this regard, some of the first and important achievement is the establishment of "Music International Summer Academy" known as "MISA" (misa. #ge) in 2015, Georgian Youth Symphony Orchestra (2017) and "Georgian Orchestra Academy" in 2019. In 2019 Shorena Tsintsabadze has recorded the masterpieces by Schumann, Brahms and Chopin and signed the contract with The Exquisite Classic Label - ARS Produktion.

Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan present Brahms' two Cello Sonatas, alongside their arrangement of his Violin Sonata in G Major on the cello. This Brahms portrait is a logical next step after the duo's acclaimed interpretation of Beethoven's complete Cello Sonatas, released in 2022. While Beethoven's sonatas reveal the gradual ascendancy of the cello as the proper solo instrument over the piano, Brahms opens a new chapter in the history of the cello sonata, realizing a glorious marriage of equals between the two instruments. This congenial relationship between cello and piano is further enhanced by Weilerstein and Barnatan, whose musical partnership (in addition to their thriving solo careers) has been a stable factor over the years.

Since signing an exclusive contract with PENTATONE, Alisa Weilerstein has released Transfigured Night (2018) as well as Bach's Cello Suites (2020), while also featuring on Old Souls (2019) and Inon Barnatan's Beethoven Piano Concertos Part 1 (2019), on which she performed the composer's Triple Concerto. This album was part of Inon Barnatan's complete Beethoven piano concertos recordings on PENTATONE, of which Part 2 appeared in 2020. 2021 saw the release of his solo album Time Traveler's Suite, while Rachmaninoff Reflections appeared in 2023, followed by Darknesse Visible in 2024. Brahms Cello Sonatas is the second PENTATONE album by Weilerstein and Barnatan. Their interpretation of Beethoven's complete Cello Sonatas appeared on the label in 2022.

A ride through the tunes with music from the Baroque to the Modern Era

The Confringo Piano Quartet, winners of the Hans G�l Prize and fellows of the 2024 German Music Competition, present a fascinating dialogue between the familiar and the rediscovered. This compelling program pairs Johannes Brahms' Third Piano Quartet, a cornerstone of the repertoire, with a rarely heard work by Hans G�l-a composer whose life was deeply shaped by National Socialism and exile. G�l's composition from the 1920s reflects the openness and vitality of it's era, it's vivid colors and expressive power unjustly neglected in concert halls today. Together, these works illuminate a powerful conversation between Late Romantic tradition and twentieth-century rediscovery, offering listeners a deeply engaging musical experience.

Do you love Brahms? Then you will also want to discover the works of Amanda Maier and Robert Fuchs: three violin sonatas, all composed or published in 1878, are now presented by Duo Codax on GENUIN. The album combines Brahms' G-major Sonata with two rarely performed works in a similar style for the same instrumentation-an engaging look at the musical environment of the time. With great sensitivity for tonal balance and phrasing, Verena Louis (piano) and Adam Markowski (violin) shape the long, sweeping lines, warm colors, and passionate accents of this music: a beautifully recorded, outstanding release for chamber-music lovers!

The late 19th century saw the expansion of the Neustadt; the German district of Strasbourg; recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Built during the same period; the three historic organs chosen for the complete recording of Johannes Brahms’ organ chorales are the precious witnesses to a time of exceptional artistic luxuriance. The three Fin de siècle composers whose works were additionally selected by Jean-Michel Douiller revive Brahms’s sonorous world as they breathe life into these three instruments: Ernest Chausson; Max Reger; and Gustav Busch. The works by Chausson and Busch are recorded for the very first time on the CD at hand.

When is a man a man?-the question posed by the German pop singer Herbert Gr�nemeyer resonates at the heart of this remarkable debut album by the lied duo Lars Conrad and Daniel Prinz. Their program offers a deep and personal exploration of male identity as mirrored in the music and lyric poetry of the German art song, from Franz Schubert to Hanns Eisler. Conrad and Prinz see the album as a catalyst for self-exploration, engaging directly with the crisis of masculinity and evolving concepts of manhood in the modern world. With refined tone and nuanced interpretation, the duo reveals treasures of the lied repertoire-each song a reflection of it's time and a mirror of today's multifaceted society.

The present release is a stunning 2-album collection with songs, lieder and pieces referring to the topic "Heimat"; all pieces arranged for tenor and horn quartet.

The tenor Daniel Behle is equally successful in the concert, Lied and opera genres and is making a name for himself as a composer as well. His extensive repertoire ranges from Baroque masterpieces, Classical and Romantic works to compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Founded in 2010 by four graduates of the French horn class of Christian Lampert at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart, German Hornsound has earned a strong international reputation based on its exceptional profile. With their new concert formats and creative program concepts they have debuted at nearly all music festivals in German-speaking Europe over the past few years.

Close to the Schumanns and admired by Mendelssohn and Wagner, Theodor Kirchner (1823–1903) was an accomplished pianist, organist, and composer in his own right. His lifelong friendship with Brahms began when the two men met at the spa town of Baden-Baden in 1865. Robert Schumann had already mentioned him in the same breath as Brahms in the influential 1853 article which effectively launched Brahms’s career. While Kirchner pursued his own, less celebrated career as a composer, he found a reliable subsidiary source of income in making the kind of arrangements through which many listeners made their first encounters with larger-scale works. He seems to have specialized in doing this for Brahms, who regarded him as an outstanding craftsman in this respect.

Instrumental concertos 1938-1940 After numerous large-scale symphonic productions Karl B�hm and the S�chsische Staatskapelle opened up a new genre in the fall of 1938 a new genre. From now on, more and more renowned instrumental instrumental soloists were brought to Dresden for recordings - an illustrious mix of world stars, some of whom who were guests in symphony concerts of the S�chsische Staatskapelle on several occasions, such as the pianists Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer and Walter Gieseking, from newcomers such as the young violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan and many more

In his new GENUIN album, pianist Viktor Soos presents a musical dialogue between three individuals bound together by love, friendship, and artistic mastery. The prizewinner of the 2021 International Robert Schumann Competition performs works by Clara and Robert Schumann, as well as Johannes Brahms - three of the most renowned musicians of the Romantic era. These are key works from their respective oeuvres that move us today just as they did two centuries ago. In his historically grounded interpretation, Soos places particular focus on the hidden dedications found throughout the pieces on this album.

For a long time Johannes Brahms was considered the epitome of conservatism, who, contrary to the disciples of Wagner and Liszt, fell back on old forms, which allegedly had no power anymore. Indeed, Brahms was an expert on music of the past, going back till the polyphonic composers of the 16th century. He made use of old patterns such as the variation and the interrelated passacaglia. He adopted the traditional four-movement symphony and its juxtaposition, respected the pattern of the sonata form and did hardly go beyond Beethoven when it came to instrumentation. However, the perception of Brahms as a “reactionary”, as it was initially argued by Nietzsche and later by the circle of Wagner and Richard Strauss, is unsustainable. No one less than Arnold Schoenberg has recognized the fundamentally different, which divided the composer Brahms, particularly as composer of symphonies, from the masters of the classical sonata and symphony in his famous paper “Brahms, der Fortschrittliche” (Brahms the Progressive)

Recorded 1974-75.

The young, Italy-based Quartetto Werther, regarded as one of the most promising rising chamber ensembles in the Italian and international concert scene, presents two masterpieces from the piano quartet repertoire: a lesser known work by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 3, a composition he grappled with for nearly twenty years. This GENUIN release pays homage to three towering figures of Romanticism: Mendelssohn, Brahms, and the literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, without whom these works might never have come into existence. Firmly grounded in Goethe's poetic legacy and performed with extraordinary musical and technical refinement, this album brings both fresh revelations and long-overdue rediscoveries to light!

The multiple award-winning bass-baritone Sebastian Naglatzki and the versatile pianist Ana Miceva bring together on their new GENUIN album the last song compositions of Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, Johannes Brahms, and Maurice Ravel. These works reflect themes such as farewell, transience, and the search for ultimate truths - captured in music with poignancy and deep feeling. The imaginatively conceived album of the exceptional singer and his expressive piano partner is both a musical retrospective and an audible legacy from four great masters of music history.

Where can we find beauty, truth and goodness - even in the face of death? That's the question Gudrun Sidonie Otto, soprano, and Andreas Liebig, cathedral organist in Basel, are facing on their second CD. Dvorak's Biblical Songs and Brahms' chorale preludes are works of longing: for home, for a loved one and for redemption. An eloquent testimony to an extraordinary musical friendship!

This album of two piano quartets by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) captures pianist Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Before his premature death and between treatments, Lars Vogt was able to record a multi-award-winning album of piano chamber music works by Schubert together with Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff, as well as albums of Mozart’s and Mendelssohn’s piano concertos. However, a project to record Brahms’ complete piano quartets was left unfinished after the studio recording of Piano Quartet No. 2 was completed. With the help of recording producer Christoph Franke, we are now able to offer this recording together with Piano Quartet No. 3 from a live concert performance in connection with the studio recording. Combined, these make up Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, violist Barbara Buntrock and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff offer stellar performances in these landmark recordings and fulfill Lars Vogt’s late wish to have these performances released.

REVIEW:

The final recordings of pianist Lars Vogt have offered many riches, but this one is arguably the most profound of all. This may be the most intense recording of the C minor quartet on recordings. In both works, the coordination among the players evinces a joy that characterizes the highest ideals of chamber music.

— AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

The young flutist Alissa Rossius Dausgaard presents her GENUIN debut album, featuring her own transcriptions of Johannes Brahms' violin sonatas for flute and piano. Alongside pianist Gerhard Vielhaber, she interprets these autumnal-romantic treasures with sensitivity and broad phrasing. The duo highlights the characters of the three sister works with great attention to detail - an exciting repertoire addition for musicians and audiences alike!

The present collection showcases studio and live recordings pianist Nelson Freire made for the SWR between 1968 and 1999. Though Freire was by his own account never really interested in a career and he even reduced considerably the number of live performances at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, he belongs to the most important pianists worldwide. A natural prodigy, Freire's style is characterised by elegance, charme and finnesse as well as deliberate avoidance of boasting.