Brahms op 105

Brahms had already decided to retire as a composer when, on a journey to Meiningen in 1891, he was inspired and challenged by clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld’s beautiful playing. The two Sonatas, Op. 120 are part of a late flowering that resulted in some of Brahms’s finest chamber music. Brahms himself explored these pieces beyond the clarinet, and Karl-Heinz Schütz’s arrangements are based on the composer’s own alternative versions, seeking out the ideal of two equally matched instruments in constant dialogue. Also included is a selection of ‘songs without words’, further expanding the flute repertoire with arrangements of these much-loved Lieder.

Martha Argerich & Itzhak Perlman - Schumann, Bach & Brahms (2016) {Warner Classics 0190295937898}
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© 2016 Parlophone / Warner Classics | 0190295937898
Classical / Piano / Violin

The performances heard on this recording by the superstar duo of violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Martha Argerich do not exactly form a discrete group: the first work, Schumann's Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105, was recorded live in 1998, while the rest consists of 2016 studio recordings. The 1998 performance, however, was part of a concert in Saratoga Springs, New York, that provided the stimulus for the joint recording. The Schumann sonata performance was not released at that time, and the rest of the program expands on the music it presents. It's nice to have the Schumann, which has a good deal of tension and energy. As for the rest, it's hard to point to a clear decline in the skills of either of the septuagenarian performers.

This album by Finnish duo partners Tuija Hakkila and Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch features Johannes Brahms’ Violin Sonatas played on period instruments. These three sonatas by Brahms form a cornerstone of chamber music repertoire for violin. When Brahms’s Sonata for piano and violin in G major op. 78, ostensibly his first, was published, it was actually the composer’s fourth venture in this genre as far as we know. Brahms began writing Sonata in G major when he had returned from Italy and travelled to the lake district of Pörtschach – a location where “the air is so full of melodies that one has to take care not to step on them.

From Brahms to Dietrich, violinist Fanny Robilliard and pianist Paloma Kouider conjure up the ghosts of the Schumanns’ destiny. The programme explores the works that left their mark on their existence, from the F-A-E Sonata to Brahms’ second Violin Sonata.

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.

This is the romantic story of a three-way love-affair told to us in music. We know that the young Brahms, as beautiful as a star, made a very noticed irruption within the couple Schumann. "Arrival of Brahms, a genius! Notes Robert in his diary with an extraordinary intuition. The sequel is told by Shuichi Okada on violin and Clément Lefebvre on piano, two young musicians of the National Conservatory of Music of Paris, co-producer of the present, where they deftly weave the links between the three characters. Schumann's First Sonata in A minor, Op. 105, opens fire, followed by two excerpts from the famous Sonata F-A-E, composed by Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich, the latter unfortunately being systematically left out by the violinists. Caught in the vice between the two men who love him, here is Clara with his Three Romances, Op. 22 which precedes the very melancholy Sonata No. 1, Op. 78, "Regen-Sonate" by Brahms. The music gathered here speaks better than words of how the three composers respond to one another and become a kind of common language, that of the impulses of the heart, of the outpouring of feelings and the unspoken.

This first volume of Brahms’ complete songs spans a period of nearly 25 years. A prolific composer of Lieder, Brahms’ adherence to traditional form was accompanied by a modern approach to compositional style. Thematically, most songs explore ideas of love, loneliness and solitude, perfectly exemplified by the Vier Gesänge, Op. 43. In a similar way the Sechs Lieder, Op. 86 share a common theme of a farewell to life. This volume contains some of his greatest songs, including Die Mainacht, as well as little-known jewels such as Versunken.