Albert Dietrich

Albert Hermann Dietrich is best known through his association with the Schumanns and his friendship with Brahms, but as this recording shows, his contribution to this circle’s artistic activities went further than promoting their works as music director at the small grand-ducal court of Oldenburg. The Symphony in D minor has a strong kinship with Brahms and was one of the most frequently performed new symphonies of its day, while the originality and variety of orchestral colour in the Violin Concerto are impressive enough to have earned it a place in the concert repertory.

Florin Paul / Brigitta Wollenweber - Free but lonely: Hommage á Joachim
Dietrich / Schumann / Brahms: Sonata F.A.E - Joseph Joachim: 3 Pieces op. 2 & 5, Romance
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 281 MB | Full Artwork: 69 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Tacet # TACET 56 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"Free but lonely" is the romantic life's motto of the violonist Joseph Joachim, who was sponsored by Mendelssohn and Schumann and through his friendship with Clara Schumann and Brahms matured into one of the most influential musicians of the 19th century. "F.A.E.", a series of notes derived from this motto, was also the title of a viloin sonata, composed jointly for him in 1853 by Schumann, Brahms and Albert Dietrich. "Free but lonely" is the title of a series of CDs presenting music by the composers close to Joseph Joachim, and by Joachim himself. This opens up a fascinating panorama of romatic music, born from the fruitful exchange of ideas between famous and little known composers whose works deserve to be discovered.

Florin Paul / Brigitta Wollenweber - Free but lonely: Hommage á Joachim
Dietrich / Schumann / Brahms: Sonata F.A.E - Joseph Joachim: 3 Pieces op. 2 & 5, Romance
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 281 MB | Full Artwork: 69 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Tacet # TACET 56 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"Free but lonely" is the romantic life's motto of the violonist Joseph Joachim, who was sponsored by Mendelssohn and Schumann and through his friendship with Clara Schumann and Brahms matured into one of the most influential musicians of the 19th century. "F.A.E.", a series of notes derived from this motto, was also the title of a viloin sonata, composed jointly for him in 1853 by Schumann, Brahms and Albert Dietrich. "Free but lonely" is the title of a series of CDs presenting music by the composers close to Joseph Joachim, and by Joachim himself. This opens up a fascinating panorama of romatic music, born from the fruitful exchange of ideas between famous and little known composers whose works deserve to be discovered.

Seeing a Sinfonia in B of Brahms in an online list of work titles will puzzle most listeners. A closer look reveals a work that's doubly unusual: Swedish conductor and violinist Joseph Swensen has made an orchestral transcription of the Brahms Trio in B major, Op. 8, and he has used the early and rarely heard 1853 version of the piece. Swensen is right that the early version, filled with effusive Schumann-like melody that was redone into complex motivic work in the revision, is worth more frequent hearings, and it goes well with the smaller pieces included: orchestrated versions of the three Romances for violin and piano, Op. 22, of Clara Schumann, and two movements of the even rarer F-A-E Sonata composed collaboratively by Schumann, Brahms, and Albert Dietrich (the initials stood for "Frei Aber Einsam," or free but lonely, the personal motto of violinist Joseph Joachim, the work's dedicatee).