Brahms Clarinet

Member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, principal of the New World Symphony, and partner of Renée Fleming on the CD Bel Canto, clarinetist Todd Levy is hot stuff. Actually and more accurately, Todd Levy is mellow stuff – rich, lush, full, deep, and sweet stuff. In this, his first solo disc, Levy takes on four of the most Romantic works in the clarinet repertoire, that's Romantic with both an upper and a lower case R: Brahms' two late sonatas in F minor and E flat major plus Schumann's Fantasy Pieces and, naturally, his Romances. It's a match made in heaven: Levy wraps himself around each piece like a coat in late autumn, playing with a cantabile tone and a flawless technique.

The Emersons and clarinetist Shifrin emphasize smoothness of line and a creamy blend of sound in this polished 1997 performance of the Mozart quintet. Tempos are ideal, giving Mozart's luxurious, long-breathed yet fragile melodies plenty of time to unfold without sacrificing animation or expressive point. Understatement rules in this interpretation, which is all the more intense and poignant because of it.

Brahms’s two sonatas for clarinet and piano, Op 120, composed in 1894, were followed only by the four Serious Songs and a set of organ chorale preludes (some of which may have been written at earlier times). His farewell to chamber music was also his farewell gift to the clarinet.

Brahms' Clarinet Quintet is a cornerstone of late Romantic chamber music, and this is the only period interpretation of the work using period instruments curently available. Jean Claude Veilhan plays a late C19th clarinet with a fine mellow sound that is more refined than a classical instrument but still more delicate than a modern one would sound. He is well supported by the string players (members of Quatour Turner who record for Harmonia Mundi), who use gut strings and a historically correct technique, ie:- they aim for a transparent sound with limited vibrato.

The music of Austrian composer Robert Fuchs attracted faint praise from Brahms, who supported Fuchs but remarked that he was "never really profound." Brahms was notoriously stingy with praise for other composers, however, and the comment is not quite fair. Yes, the Fuchs Clarinet Quintet in E flat major, Op. 102, recorded here is clearly modeled on the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, that accompanies it on the album, right down to the episodic series of variations that makes the finale.

Johannes Brahms had decided that his composing days were over, but then the retiree met Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinetist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra. Mühlfeld's playing so very much charmed the great composer that he once again put pencil to score paper - and did so again and again - and with magnificent results. Here the two Clarinet Sonatas and the equally marvelous Clarinet Trio are heard for the first time in high-resolution 3-D sound on Super Audio CD in performances by Robert Oberaigner and Michael Schöch - joined by Norbert Anger on the cello.

In this new recording of Brahms amazingly warm and expressive Clarinet Trio in A minor Op. 114 and Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op. 115, are the works presented with great personnel feeling, passion, drama and deep intimacy. The works were performed at a concert in Stockholm, at the Royal Academy of Music during a Brahms/Reger festival in 2002, where Kjell Fagéus together with Bengt Forsberg on piano, Mats Lidström Cello and The Tale String Quartet in 3 concerts performed the complete chamber music for Clarinet by these two composers…

This recording of the complete chamber music works for clarinet by Johannes Brahms is presented with first-rate interpreters: Laura Ruiz Ferreres, one of the most gifted clarinettists of her generation, and pianist Christoph Berner. Internationally renowned cellist Danjulo Ishizaka and the Mandelring Quartet complete the superb line-up of instrumentalists for this recording.

Among the most cherished of all chamber works, the Quintet was written after Brahms visited the ducal court of Meiningen and heard Richard Mühlfeld, whom he considered one of the greatest woodwind players he had ever heard. It is a heartfelt work, and seems to sum up Brahms's life, with a mood of resignation-without-bitterness prevailing. This is one of Brahms's finest achievements.