Johannes Brahms 24 Bit

The second album in Lars Vogts Johannes Brahms concerto series with the Royal Northern Sinfonia includes Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto combined with a solo piano work, Handel Variations Op. 24, which was dedicated to Clara Schumann by the composer.

Bold, turbulent defiance sit alongside pained introspection and bittersweet reverie in this penetrating recital of Brahms piano works by the acclaimed young Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin in his eagerly awaited second recording for PENTATONE.

The culmination of many performances, and years of research into historically informed performance practice and period instruments, the Primrose Piano Quartet are delighted with this 2 CD set of Brahms’ magnificent works for the ensemble.

Asked the question ‘How many sonatas for violin and piano did Johannes Brahms compose?’, many lovers of chamber music would probably answer three, and maybe also add their respective keys and opus numbers. When pressed, a number of them would also remember the so-called F.A.E. Sonata, a collaborative effort by the young Brahms, Albert Dietrich and their mentor Robert Schumann. But very few would probably think of the two Opus 120 sonatas, composed in 1894 for clarinet (or viola) and piano, but a year later published in the composer’s own version for the violin. As the range of the B flat clarinet goes a fourth lower than that of the violin, Brahms had been forced to make considerable revisions to the clarinet part – which in turned entailed changes in the piano part, and consequently the printing of a new piano score.

Gegenwärtig gibt es weltweit gerade mal neun Bratschen aus der Werkstatt des berühmten Instrumentenbauers Antonio Stradivari. Eine davon, die Stradivari Viola "Gibson" 1734, wird von dem Bratschisten Lech Antonio Uszynski gespielt. Benannt ist dieses Kleinod nach dem Engländer George Alfred Gibson (1849-1924), der Professor für Violine an der Königlichen Akademie in Berlin war sowie ein berühmter Solist und Bratschist im renommierten «Joachim-Quartett», in dem er das Instrument spielte. Mit dieser "Vergangenheit" gehört die "Gibson"-Bratsche momentan zu einem der wertvollsten Musikinstrumente weltweit.

Most of us, when contemplating medieval representations of danse macabre, in which Death leads people of all walks of life, do not pay attention to the sound aspect of the allegory. Yet it is very important – where there is dancing, there must also be music. In the oldest depictions, dating back to the end of the Middle Ages, it is Death that plays an instrument. Interestingly, it is a wind instrument, such as a flute or bagpipes, or a percussion instrument.

The Kreisler Trio Wien has again invited renowned guest musicians for it's latest album, including the principal hornist of the Vienna Philharmonic, Wolfgang Vladar. The main work of this recording is Beethoven's Septet, Op. 20, combined with the charming Serenade for String Trio by Ernst von Dohnanyi as the door-opener.

Impressions d'enfance, Ensemble Raro's and Gilles Apap's new recording, is dedicated to chamber music works of George Enescu. Piano Quintet in D is one of his earliest compositions. Written in 1896 at the age of fifteen during his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, it is certainly inspired by Brahms' chamber works. Enescu himself confessed about Brahms' enormous influence on his development: "the God of my youthful adoration is Brahms and I wrote my early works in the style of the immortal Johannes in an almost flagrant way". The Quintet was premiered in 1897, in Enescu's first recital of his own works in Paris at the age of sixteen; Massenet and Cortot were in the audience.

The two sonatas for clarinet and piano, composed in 1894, were Brahms’s last chamber works. Knowing that he could count on the virtuosity of their dedicatee, the prodigious clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907), Brahms enthusiastically exploited all the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Under the fingers of Lorenzo Coppola, the clarinet prays, sobs, dreams or laughs, bringing astonishing conviction to all these varied emotions.

Brahms's important output of 24 chamber scores dominated the second half of the 19th century, as that of Beethoven had dominated the first half. His corpus was thus a response to that of Beethoven, his model, and to that of Mendelssohn, who was likewise born in Hamburg and also composed two cello sonatas. In 1890, aged only 57, Brahms resolved to give up composing but he had reckoned without the inspiration that his meeting with the Meiningen clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld was to have on his creative imagination. He subsequently added four scores for clarinet to his output, including this Trio Op. 114.