Classical Music

Includes intermezzo(s) for piano by Johannes Brahms. Soloist: Mikhail Kazakevich.

Shumsky never recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto commercially, though TV film exists of his performance. Violin fanciers had quivering fingers set on 'record' when he played it on the BBC many years ago and I should know as my own calloused fingers were poised to plunge and capture the great man in action. Some hardy souls have uploaded their VHS copies onto YouTube. I think it's less well known however that he set down the Violin sonatas and Viola sonatas for MusicMasters in 1991 and these performances have now been revivified by Nimbus.

It was always a perplexing matter as to why Shumsky was one of that rare breed who, once he had made his belated and feted reappearance on the international scene, was so seldom asked back by orchestras. I understand that his tart and abrasive manner may have had something to do with it, but playing of his exalted level comes very seldom in one's listening experience. Maybe he was out of kilter with some elements of the public. I remember hearing his American colleague Aaron Rosand at his last Wigmore Hall appearance in London. The stranger sitting next to me turned at the interval and asked what I thought of the violinist so I gave him a more than favourable summary. The man's brow darkened. 'I don't like his tone or his playing', he said and turned away, and that was that. Perhaps he'd have preferred Midori.

Not much of which has anything to do with these late, patrician readings. Nobility courses through the veins of Op.108 - tone and phrasing - and even at 74 Shumsky gives younger players a master class in rubato usage and phraseology. His near contemporary Leonid Hambro demarcates the left hand accents of the slow movement punctiliously whilst Shumsky gauges the rise and fall of the lyric line with great wisdom, reserving greatest weight of tone and bow pressure for the optimum time. Both men catch the gutsy wit of the Scherzo and stake out the finale's geography with practised assurance. It's true that Shumsky's intonation is not infallible and his tone can become pinched from time to time but these are minor glitches amongst the panorama that unfolds.

The G major and A major share these virtues and abundance and also, it's true, some technical failings as well already alluded to as well as a lack of tonal body. Ensemble however is excellent, the double stopping in the Adagio of Op.78 on the money, whilst the piano's bass tolling is memorably insisted upon by Hambro. In the lyrically settled Op.100 things are first class, the lyric warmth conveyed with nobility but no hint of glutinous over vibration, albeit the slowing vibrato makes itself heard most especially in the sonata's finale where tone colours could be better varied.

Some may not know that Shumsky played the viola - though his son Eric does - but as he shows here he most certainly did. He was once an august member of William Primrose's quartet and I think it's to that great Scotsman that we can best ascribe the strongest influence on his viola playing. The tempi are remarkably similar - Primrose recorded I with Kapell and II with Gerald Moore and both with Firkušný. If you admire, say, Rivka Golani's playing (with Bogino, Conifer CDCF199) you will find Shumsky almost brusque in comparison. But this kind of 'alto' toned viola playing aligns well with Primrose's own, albeit the myriad colours and virtuosic panache of Primrose are a very different thing from Shumsky's own playing, which can sound rather more one dimensional. But it does share that same tensile-expressive curvature, that unsentimental affection, the subtlety of metrics and rubati.

This is one for Shumsky's admirers. It's not without its faults but it enshrines playing of rapt wisdom and assurance, and fortunately captures both Shumsky and his excellent colleague Hambro well.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



BRAHMS Piano Sonatas: No. 1 in C; No. 3 in f • Hardy Rittner (pn) • MDG 9041538 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 67:51)


“One of the best new solo Brahms albums to come my way in quite some time” was how I described Volume 1 of Hardy Rittner’s survey of Brahms’s early piano works in 32:1. Volume 2 adds the First and Third Sonatas to the Second Sonata, Variations on a Theme of Schumann , and ballades previously released. For this recording, Rittner plays a slightly earlier piano, one made in 1849–50, from the workshop of Ignaz Bösendorfer. On Volume 1, he played an instrument made in 1851.


I’ve always wondered why Brahms never wrote another piano sonata after having written three huge and enormously difficult essays in the form before his 21st birthday. It wasn’t for lack of wanting to. We know that his initial sketches for what would eventually become the D-Minor Piano Concerto began as a sonata for two pianos. The same is true of the F-Minor Piano Quintet, which Brahms did preserve and publish as op. 34b. But in both cases, these were conceived for two keyboards, not one. Brahms was an accomplished pianist, appearing publicly in that capacity on a regular basis, so one would think that the solo piano sonata would have been a logical vehicle for him to exploit. My conjecture—and it’s just that—is that even though the piano, by every evidence of the sound of the instrument on this disc (an instrument of exactly the same vintage as the sonatas), had evolved to its approximately modern-day state, it was still incapable of producing the symphonic sound and textures Brahms was able to achieve in his chamber works that joined piano with strings. The Bösendorfer here—serial number 1665—is of the new rounded case design with separate fallboard, a compass of seven octaves, and a length of over seven and a half feet. It also has both damper and una corda pedals.


A reading of any history of the piano’s evolution will tell you that, except for body length, which increased to approximately nine feet in the early 20th century, and continuing refinements to the frame and key mechanisms, most of the technical innovations, such as the double escapement action, the single piece cast iron frame, felt-covered hammers, the sostenuto pedal, and over-stringing were all inventions and improvements of the 19th century, some dating from even before Brahms was born. So, for all intents and purposes, Rittner’s Bösendorfer is much closer to a Steinway Model D than it is to any instrument Mozart would have known.


The sonic impact of this hybrid multichannel SACD is palpable, as it was on Volume 1. I find myself, however, not quite as wowed by Rittner’s readings of these two sonatas as I was by his previous release. His playing, technically, is still most impressive. But he is competing here against a number of pianists who have earned very high marks in this repertoire. I’m thinking in particular of Emanuel Ax and Mikhail Rudy. What seems ever so slightly lacking to me in Rittner’s performances is Brahms’s youthful exuberance, the sense of a young man barely out of his teens feeling, if not sowing, his oats. There’s just a bit of reserve or holding back in some of the go-for-broke passages, where Ax and Rudy throw caution to the winds and abandon themselves to Brahms’s unleashed passions.


This is a very minor criticism and should not put anyone off from acquiring this disc. Just to hear these works performed on an instrument that Brahms himself might have played, and captured in a recording of such depth and physical presence, is enough to offset any trifling reservation I may have expressed. If Rittner and MDG are planning a full run at all of Brahms’s works for solo piano, I definitely look forward to future installments.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

This CD usefully gathers together the four most significant works in Brahms’s output for chorus and orchestra, with the obvious exception of Ein deutsches Requiem. Readers will already have noticed the rather niggardly playing time so let me hasten to assure them that it is only in this respect that the disc offers short measure: the music and the performances are of high quality.

The young English conductor, Robin Ticciati, has attracted a great deal of favourable notice in a relatively short space of time. Already installed as chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (from the 2009/10 season) he will become First guest conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker from the 2010/11 season. This, I suspect, is his first recording with the orchestra and in it he reveals himself to be a fine Brahmsian.

The Alto Rhapsody is the best-known piece on the programme and I was very pleased to see the British mezzo, Alice Coote in the solo role. I saw her sing the piece on television a year or two ago at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. Here, freed from the necessity of projecting into such a vast auditorium as the Royal Albert Hall she can sing with the proper intimacy that much of the piece requires. It’s a remarkable work in many ways. The later Gesang der Parzen has a surprisingly large amount of dissonance in its harmonies but the way is surely paved in the searching music of the Rhapsody. Ticciati conducts it with maturity and is successful at laying out the stark winter landscape portrayed in the opening pages. Alice Coote sings very well; her vocal production is unforced and her warm, expressive tone gives much pleasure. Throughout the piece her voice is in good focus and I especially admired her poise at the telling phrase “Die Öde verschlingt ihn”. Ticciati accompanies his soloist considerately and his orchestra realises the textures of the music very well. Miss Coote is successful in putting across the introspective side of the piece and then, when the famous heart-easing melody appears - “Ist auf deinem Psalter” – her delivery of it is lovely, with the male voices of the choir in good support.

I came to know Nänie several years ago through taking part in a series of performances; it’s a very fine piece. It is, as Colin Anderson says in his booklet note, a work that contains “music of rapt contemplation and remarkable loveliness”. Indeed, the oboe melody that’s heard near the start is of a stature comparable with the theme for the same instrument in the slow movement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Ticciati leads a splendid performance. The music unfolds with due spaciousness and warmth but without any suspicion of wallowing. The choir is full-toned and well balanced. They produce some fine quiet singing but, when required, there’s ample power without any need to force the tone. It’s a very satisfying performance and to my ears Ticciati seems to get everything just right.

Gesang der Parzen is, musically, a very different proposition. This was the composer’s last work for choir and orchestra and it contains a good deal of turbulent, dark music. The darkness is emphasised by elements of Brahms’ scoring. He includes parts for a contrabassoon and a tuba while the choir is divided into six parts, including two alto parts and two bass parts. The piece begins quietly and from the outset a marked and appropriate degree of tension is present. The volume is increased significantly for the second stanza of the words, which are by Goethe, beginning “Der fürchte sie doppelt” (“Let he [who is raised up by them] fear them doubly”) and the choir rise to the occasion with some exciting singing. The whole piece is concentrated and is tragic in tone. Ticciati directs his forces with admirable energy. The spectral end, in which the contrabassoon is a discreet but telling presence, is well managed.

Schicksalslied mixes the sublime and the dramatic. The spacious introduction, in warm E flat major, is one of the most radiant passages of Brahms that I know. In this account the muted violins sing out the main theme most affectingly while the timpani pound quietly underneath. The gentle entry of the choir – led excellently by the altos – sustains the mood of the introduction perfectly. Later, at “Doch uns ist gegeben”, the music plunges abruptly into C minor and Brahms’ music is bitingly dramatic, recalling “Tod, wo ist dein Stachel” in Ein deutsches Requiem. Finally, Brahms relents and revisits the music of the introduction, but this time in C major. This is balm after the storm and I always think that the prominence of the flute in this reprise emphasises the lightening of the textures and the parting of the storm-clouds. The whole performance of this fine work strikes me as a complete success.

There have been comparable couplings of these four short masterpieces in the past. Claudio Abbado did them all to excellent effect with the Berliner Philharmoniker for DG in the early 1990s (435 791-2) and they were also recorded for Decca by Herbert Blomstedt in 1989, during his time in San Francisco. However, I’m not sure that either set of recordings is currently available. Even if they are, this newcomer offers an excellent alternative. Not only are the performances very good but also the recorded sound is very satisfying – I listened to this hybrid SACD in conventional CD form. My only reservation about the otherwise well-produced booklet is that the English and French translations of Nänie and of Gesang der Parzen are not aligned with the German words.

On this occasion I’d urge collectors to overlook the short playing time. These are very fine examples of the art of Brahms and they’ve been well served in these excellent recordings. I hope this is a harbinger of the forthcoming partnership between Robin Ticciati and this distinguished German orchestra.


-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

This exciting new program of Violin Sonatas by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) comes from award-winning violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt as the latest volume in their highly successful series of violin chamber works. These sonatas were composed between 1878 and 1888, and are among the greatest 19th century chamber music masterpieces. . This release also features a Scherzo movement from the F. A. E. Sonata, which was Brahms’ contribution to a composite sonata with Albert Dietrich and Robert Schumann in 1853. Christian Tetzlaff maintains an extensive performance schedule and is one of the world’s leading international violinists. He has won numerous awards including “Instrumentalist of the Year” from Musical America, and the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik” for his recording of violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Schumann.

REVIEWS:

A breathtaking balance of poise and daring. Tetzlaff and Vogt take obvious pleasure in details without losing sight of the larger picture, whether it’s a phrase, a movement or an entire work. Indeed, they sharply delineate the individual character of each sonata.

– Gramophone Magazine

I get the impression that Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt want to drag the composer out of his book-lined study and seal the door. It’s beautiful playing, tonally and expressively, and very musical, but it’s also surprisingly open – Brahms after an expensive course of Viennese psychotherapy.

– BBC Music Magazine

This new release from Ondine is the first installment in a series of Brahms recordings with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Jaime Martin. Together with the orchestra, Martin offers delightful interpretations of these two early examples of Brahms' orchestral writing. Jaime Martin became the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra in 2013. During recent years orchestral engagements have led the rising conductor to collaborate with several prominent orchestras around the world. Martin is also Chief Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaques and known for his active career as a solo flautist. The two Brahms' orchestral Serenades heard here were written in the late 1850's and together with the first Piano Concerto, offer the earliest surviving examples of his orchestral writing.

REVIEW:

Anyone who champions Brahms’s gloriously eccentric, lyrical, and capacious Serenades deserves full attention. Here they get it. There’s some lovely playing, with warm woodwind and horns and nice, crisp syncopations. Martín does not allow the tempi to drag: important in works that need to be kept agile and alert to reveal their special charm.

– Guardian

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Some compositions are so good that we wish we could have two of the same. The early Piano Trio in B major op. 8 by Johannes Brahms is one such work and one of music history’s greatest cases of good fortune: it has been transmitted in two versions. As we know, the overly self-critical Brahms otherwise completely destroyed all the early versions, sketches, and drafts of his works. The Vienna Piano Trio’s new Brahms edition in superior Super Audio sound on MDG opens with the late version of this work from the composer’s youth and then confronts it with his mature op. 87.

The piano part is of extraordinary difficulty – which is hardly surprising since the gifted pianist wrote it around the time of his Piano Concerto No. 2. The haunting scherzo in particular has what it takes and is a rewarding task for Stefan Mendl, who with his Viennese colleagues celebrates the spirit world on a venerable “Manfred Bürki” Steinway D.

Best known for his gigantic orchestral masterpieces Johannes Brahms took equal pleasure in writing smaller miniatures. In fact, Brahms wrote a substantial number of pieces for vocal quartet and piano; this ensemble was for him a vehicle for expressing warmth and positive emotions, and as such this genre remains one of the most beloved in his output. This new recording by the prestigious Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Klava features a selection from his Op.. 52, 64, 65 and 92, including some of his famous Liebeslieder-Walzer. Brahms wrote his earliest waltzes for piano duet and published them as Op. 39 in 1865. Some years later, in 1868-1869, he went on to write the Liebeslieder-Walzer for vocal quartet and piano four hands, Op. 52. These, in turn, prompted a "sequel" in Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65 five years later. These warm and vivacious songs are a happy marriage of Viennese waltzes and the love poetry of Georg Friedrich Daumer, and biographers point to a romantic impulse stemming from Brahms's amorous enchantment with the daughter of his close frien dClara Schumann, Julia. Brahms's vocal quartets with piano accompaniment represent an interesting chamber music approach to vocal music. They give the impression of being created for the purpose of intimate music-making at home, among friends. The Liebeslieder-Walzer quickly became one of Brahms's most popular works.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Much has been written about the compositional history of the Piano Concerto in D minor by Johannes Brahms: how the composer initially planned a sonata for two pianos and then a symphony; how Beethoven's overwhelming legacy inhibited him; how the young composer also as a pianist ended up delighting his audiences in Hanover but unsettling them in Leipzig. Dina Ugorskaja, performing with the Brandenburg Symphony under the conductor and Siemens Prize recipient Peter G�lke, is now presenting this work in it's essence: a magnificent contribution to the music literature that even 160 years after it's premiere continues to be filled with enigmas and marvels. As an encore, Dina Ugorskaja offers a highly poetic rendering of the three intermezzi from Brahms's op. 117, a work from his late period. This very personal interpretation moves listeners with it's flexible tempo and an enormous spectrum of tone colors. Lovingly produced and recorded under the finest circumstances, this ambitious program featuring these so very different works is an enriching addition to every collection.

Also available on Blu-ray

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden turn to the symphonic work of Johannes Brahms.

Bonus features include: an extensive 52 minute interview with Christian Thielemann on Brahms’ Symphonies and provides and in-depth look into his interpretation of Brahms.

Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden (Nos. 2 and 4) and the NHK Hall, Tokyo (Nos. 1 and 3)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0 / DTS 5.1 Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Language (bonus): German
Subtitles (bonus): English, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 208 mins (symphonies) + 52 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 3

Top Brahms!

Here it is: the final release in the set of Brahms symphonies from Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic. Previous reviews have praised just about every aspect of this new Naxos cycle, and while I admit to arriving somewhat late on the scene I have to admit that all expectations are realised.

So that you know where I’m coming from, my formative introduction to the symphonies of Brahms came with the 1983 live cycle on DG with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic. The influence of those initial impressions of intensity and edgy freedom of expression are of course hard to shake, but there is always more than one way to skin a great piece of music, and later on I was as likely to be found settling down with a good book and Herbert von Karajan’s 1989 recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic. Other versions have passed my way as well – Günter Wand’s 2001 RCA cycle with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra for instance, and those lovely old Bruno Walter recordings with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra now on Sony, which still sound surprisingly good given their vintage.

If done properly, Brahms’s symphonic writing means that you will have read the same page a multitude of times in that ‘good book’ you have in your hand while listening. The content and meaning of the words will remain as obscure as at the first attempt as your ears and attention are absorbed and enthralled by the lush musical garden that gradually unfolds through your loudspeakers, or in my case headphones. With Alsop and the LPO you might as well give up on reading at all, and give yourself over to a feast of wonderful music-making.

Marin Alsop’s tempi are measured and sustained in what seems to me an ideal way in this symphony. The first movement seems at first urbane and restrained, but the ceiling is set high, and there is plenty of room for bite and drama in the music – never hurried or unstable, but with a gloss of perfect preparation which seems to allow the listener to plunge directly and deeply into Brahms’s inspired vision. The same is true of the second Andante moderato movement, in which the winds initially shine with lush resonance. Intonation is crucial here, and the LSO’s wind and brass are spot on – playing as one. The timing and anticipation is beautifully measured in advance of the ‘big tune’ at 8:55, which is turned out here without histrionics, but as a noble and almost infinite field of sound – a bounteous source for a composer like Elgar, whose own ‘Enigma’ variations spring immediately to mind.

A lightness of touch is required of the third movement’s Allegro giocoso, and Alsop blows away any cobwebs which may have gathered in a sweep of freshness. There’s a slightly anticipatory rhythm at 4:23 caused by an edit, but this will hopefully only be noticeable to fully trained and overly picky reviewers. The final movement brings back the measured, sustained feel of the first, but with that extra turbulence, and those quicksilver touches of detail in the orchestration pointed subtly and superbly by all concerned in this recording. I was wondering if that slow central section wasn’t just a little too slow and lingering, but the re-entry of the full orchestra at around 6:00 is made all the more magical for being delayed for that extra few ounces of ‘down-time’, and the final run builds in intensity to create a fully satisfying close.

The Hungarian Dances presented here are the ‘leftovers’ from Brahms’s own orchestrations of nos. 1, 3 and 10, covered in volume 2 of this series. The dances here have been newly orchestrated by Peter Breiner in an imaginative commission from Naxos especially for this recording. Breiner’s versions respect Brahms’s orchestral resonances for the most part, but inject quite a bit of extra jazzy impact and violinistic Hungarian idiom, emphasising some of those seriously fun syncopations with extra percussion and brass. There is a danger of creating a set of little P.D.Q. Bach monsters here, but with the essence of Brahms’s ideas held largely intact I admire the way Breiner has stretched these pieces just enough to make them into genuine orchestral showpieces, without turning the smiles they bring into disrespectful guffaws.

I think the way is clear – I simply must have the rest of this set.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

This selection is available for a limited time as a special import.

Claudio Arrau in Moscow: Brahms Concertos (Live)

Successful string quartet performance is all about communication, in the purest sense of the word: constant giving and exchanging, a communion among the players based on an intimate relationship bound by deep understanding, of the music and of each other. It’s the essence of what is meant by ensemble. When you have that, you can play anything together and make it vital, and most of all, true to the composer’s intent.

As my colleague David Hurwitz said in an earlier review, Brahms’ quartets are “respected more than they are loved”, and can sound “overworked” and “texturally monotonous”. It’s true that you can play unlawfully fast and loose with these quartets and pretty much get away with it, given enough rhythmic finesse and blurring of textures, and these are among the many reasons that listeners, including me, usually aren’t that much in love with these dense, phenomenally busy, complicated pieces. But when you hear them played with the unusual clarity, scintillating detail, and dynamic, exacting, turn-on-a-dime expressive statements uttered by an ensemble of literally one interpretive mind and unassailable technique, you have to rethink the reasons for your avoidance reflex when faced with a Brahms quartet close encounter.

When the New Zealand Quartet made this recording its members had been working and playing together for 20 years, a rarity in the music world, and a situation that pays huge dividends in performance. There are few relationships anywhere in which the members spend more time together, pouring heart and soul into an intensely charged, creative collaboration, its success built both on individual artistic drive and vision, and contingent on compromising, blending, and capitalizing on the strengths of those impulses and passions. Any group that can manage this, whether a married couple or a string quartet, is something of a miracle, and, especially if you’ve seen this group in concert, you know how special it is.

And there is no holding back in these performances: the NZSQ literally attacks and wrestles Brahms’ scores to the ground–a positive, friendly intervention, for the good of all concerned. These performances should not disappoint any listener, whether you hate Brahms or love his music, because they take you out of the realm of preconception and just deliver aggressive, uninhibited, and yes, passionate expressions of these scores, respectful of the composer while always working to realize the fullness of the music that Brahms struggled so long and hard to create.

My only regret here is that with a recording you don’t truly experience what this group is doing. Unless you actually see them in concert, you don’t appreciate the incredible group dynamic that’s happening during a performance, you don’t totally get the ensemble interaction that produces this result. They stand when they perform–cellist Rolf Gjelsten sits on a special raised platform–and there’s a physicality to the communication among the players that’s only comparable to a dance, a ballet. And if you can make a ballet out of Brahms’ string quartets, well, you’ve got something that’s worth listening to.

– ClassicsToday (David Vernier)

The Eskar Trio have established themselves as one of Denmark’s leading chamber music ensembles and Cpo are proud to present their interpretation of Johann Brahms’s Piano Trios.

In addition to the three well-known trios is the Piano Trio in A major, a work whose authorship continues to be a matter of controversy. The anonymous score from a Bonn manuscript collection of the nineteenth century was discovered in 1924 (now extant), and it is thought to be a sole survivor from collection of piano trios the self-critical composer withheld from publication.

Classical Music

PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 & HANDEL V

This release concludes the CPO exploration of the song oeuvre of Johannes Brahms. Time of course has taken nothing away from the enduringly high value of the song interpretations by top artists like Juliane Banse, Ingeborg Danz, Andreas Schmidt, Christoph Prégardien, and others. Already the sheer quantity of twenty duets and twenty-seven quartets as well as the eighteen Liebeslieder-Walzer and fifteen Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer still mostly designed as vocal quartets clearly demonstrate that settings for more than one solo voice have an important place in Brahms’s lied oeuvre. Although the quartets in principle were written for ensembles of soloists, from the very beginning choral performance for presentation in the concert hall formed an alternative that at least was tolerated by the composer. While Brahms himself could not decide about the ideal ensemble dimensions, solo or choral, for the two series of Liebeslieder-Walzer, for the Quartets op. 64 he even expressly reckoned with the possibility, as he stated to his publisher, that the settings “occasionally would be sung by a little choir.” Things were different with the duets: they belonged to the core inventory of middle-class home performance in the nineteenth century and were even more strongly anchored there than the solo lied beginning in the 1850s, when the increasing number of lieder recitals meant that this song form more frequently found its way to the concert hall.

The violin concertos by Max Bruch and Johannes Brahms are among the most significant works in the violin concerto repertoire. They are regarded as highly virtuosic and place great demands on the soloists. They were composed in the 19th century and remain an integral part of the concert repertoire to this day. They showcase different facets of Romanticism: Bruch's work is melodic and emotive, whereas Brahms' concerto is more monumental and symphonic in scope.

Today, it is a beacon in the world of music: a cappella choir culture at the highest technical and musical level. Clytus Gottwald had a decisive influence on this choir culture with his work, arranging solo songs for polyphonic choirs and thus enabling new, breathtaking sound experiences. In 2025, Gottwald would have turned 100 years old. The Stuttgart Chamber Choir, conducted by Frieder Bernius, has taken this anniversary as an opportunity to honor Gottwald's art with a special program. From Franz Schubert's Nacht und Tr�ume (Night and Dreams) to Die K�nige (The Kings) by Peter Cornelius to Solveig's Song by Edvard Grieg, the range of songs that Gottwald transformed into a cappella choral sound experiences through his transcriptions is vast. A vocal delight, not only in the anniversary year!

Andrew Wan, Concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, and Charles Richard-Hamelin, internationally acclaimed pianist and silver medalist at the Chopin Competition, unite their artistic chemistry in a pinnacle of the Romantic repertoire. Through Brahms' three violin sonatas, they unfold a sweeping expressive arc: the intimate lyricism of Op. 78, the radiant warmth of Op. 100, and the dramatic intensity of Op. 108. Their interpretation combines depth, architectural balance, and controlled intensity, supported by a rich and resonant recorded sound. A landmark recording, at once noble, incandescent, and profoundly compelling.

The debut album of violinist Hannah Cho, born in South Korea and member of the Vienna Philharmonic, is shaped by the idea of paying tribute to her adopted home of Vienna through sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms-composers who are closely associated with this city. Although their lifespans (born in 1756 in Salzburg, in 1797 in Vienna-Himmelpfortgrund, and in 1833 in Hamburg, respectively) by a thin margin don't overlap, they can be described as bearers of a relay baton, their connection found in the tradition of Viennese Classicism. Together with pianist Srebra Gelleva, Hannah Cho presents Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K. 304/300c by W. A. Mozart, Sonata in A major, Op. Posth. 162, D 574 by Franz Schubert, and Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 by Johannes Brahms. This selection offers a cross-section of the historical development of the violin sonata genre, which experiences an early flourishing with Mozart, was almost naturally incorporated into Schubert's oeuvre, and finds a peak of maturity in the Romantic era with Brahms.

The four symphonies of Johannes Brahms give emphasis to his significance as a composer more than any other works he wrote. He struggled for a long time before producing his first symphonic work – with Beethoven’s larger-than-life example before his eyes, the “giant”, whom he could hear marching behind him, as he once quipped. It took Brahms twenty years to complete his first symphony in 1876 – at the age of 43 – and another eight for the three further symphonies. All four of these historic works are presented on this release from Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the WDR Sinfonieorchester. In the more than sixty years of its existence, the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologna has established itself as one of the most important European radio orchestras. Stylistic versatility is the special trademark of the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Jukka-Pekka Saraste became principal conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2010/2011 season. The orchestra and conductor can already look back at many years of working successfully together.

Arkadiusz Adamski is one of the most active clarinetists in Poland. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, and has an active teaching career. Thanks to many competition successes, which include first prize at the Polish Chamber Music Competition in 1983 and second prize at the International Competition for Karol Kurpinski, Adamski has been one of the most recognized Polish clarinetists from the very start of his career. The present album, presented alongside renowned chamber musicians Marcin Zdunik, Magdalena Wojciechowska and the Apollon Musagete Quartet, includes two works by Johannes Brahms: his Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in A minor op. 114, and Quintet for clarinet, two violins, viola, and cello in B minor, Op. 115.

The Cleveland Orchestra is the “aristocrat among American orchestras” (The Telegraph) and its sovereign, Franz Welser-Möst, rules his subjects with a velvet glove. Indeed, velvet and silk keep showing up in descriptions of the Clevelanders’ sound under its principal conductor. It is Welser-Möst’s nimble alternation between smoothness and a sound that’s as “sharp-edged as a skyscraper” (The Telegraph after the Brahms’ First at the orchestra’s London Proms concert). That keeps the ensemble and the audience figuratively on its toes. Brahms’ Fourth and last Symphony could be said to glow with autumnal colors. Endowed with a strong undercurrent of subdued melancholy, it seems to pine for an irretrievable past. Franz Welser-Möst offers a “lean, propulsive performance” (The Plain Dealer) of this work with his highly concentrated Cleveland Orchestra. The swift pace of the symphony in Welser-Möst’s hands reflects the conductor’s quest for a distinctive, far-from-the-mainstream interpretation. Written nearly contemporaneously in the late 1870s, Johannes Brahms’ rousing Academic Festival Overture and Violin Concerto op. 77 bear witness to a composer at the height of his abilities, a mature master of large-scale masterpieces. The Violin Concerto demands extreme technical proficiency. As if to exemplify this, violinist Julia Fischer gears herself from the very start of this emotionally searing work to maintaining a restrained yet passionate tone.