Silke Hubrig

These performances are absolutely stunning, so much so that a reappraisal of Schumann’s Violin sonatas is in order. What once sounded like pre-Brahmsian music (as presented by Ara Malikian and Serouj Kradjian on Hänssler Classic), with its harmonic exploration and varied moods, is here revealed as the full-bodied passion of Schumann at his most impetuous. (It’s interesting to note that these two women–violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Silke Avenhaus–come up with far more aggressive and masculine interpretations than do the two men on the Hänssler disc.)

Rare but Irresistible: Cello Meets Harp Singing melodies of the cello borne by the silvery splendor of the harp’s tonal cascades – Mathias Johansen and Silke Aichhorn formed their duo in 2018 in order to revive the rarely performed literature for these two instruments. It is not clear why there are so few original compositions for this duo form. In the nineteenth century the tradition was for the harp to accompany virtuoso violinists. In his time Frederick the Great of Prussia employed a harpist to accompany his own flute solos and the violin sonatas of his violinists Benda and Graun. Prior to the French Revolution this combination was very much in vogue in the distinguished residences of the Parisian nobility, and then, in the early nineteenth century, it found its place on the German concert stage with the musical husband and wife Louis and Dorette Spohr.

By all accounts, Ernst Eichner was a distinguished if somewhat disreputable musician in his day. His life and catalogue of employers is given in some detail in Johannes Sturm’s booklet notes for this release. A possible indicator of this renown is the appropriation of the two Harp Concerti Op. 5 as being by Ernst by Amsterdam publisher Johann Julius Hummel, when in fact they are by the ‘otherwise unknown’ Jean Théophile Eichner. This may or may not have been the result of inefficient confusion rather than intentional forgery, but in any case Ernst was the default Eichner as far as the publisher of these works was concerned, and publishers are keen to turn a profit if nothing else.

Brahms often produced four-handed piano arrangements of his orchestral, vocal and chamber music, which made his works more easily available to the general public. The final volume of this highly acclaimed series features the monumental Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major which Brahms played through with the composer Ignaz Brüll in a two-piano arrangement prior to its première in Pest, 1881. Brahms also arranged works by his great friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, among them the dramatic Overture to Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Op. 7.