Composer: Johannes Brahms
Performer: Anke Dill, Florian Wiek
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hänssler
Catalogue: HC22064
Release: 2023
Size: 787 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1
01. Allegro appassionato
02. Andante un poco Adagio
03. Allegretto grazioso
04. Vivace
Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120 No. 2
05. Allegro amabile
06. Allegro appassionato
07. Andante con moto – Allegro – Pi tranquillo
Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115
08. Allegretto
09. Adagio
10. Andantino – Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
11. Con moto
In 19th-century Vienna (where Brahms spent much of his profession al life), the practice of writing “music for the home” (which should in no way be pejoratively construed as a retreat into carefree seclusion) experienced a boom that reached as far as the imperial court of Franz Joseph I. The music-making in many Viennese households was on a par with public performances and boasted enormous variety. Special reference to this recording: on the evening of May 11, 1895, Johannes Brahms played this very CD-programme at the Vienna home of the culture-loving Fellinger family, with whom he was very well acquainted, having received from Simrock the galley proofs of the rearranged versions of the op. 120 sonatas for violin and piano. His partner for this soiree was the violin virtuoso Marie Soldat-Roeger, who was one of the eminent female musical figures of the 19th century, on a par with the likes of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Pauline Viardot-Garcia and others. Soldat-Roeger was the first Austrian woman to gain prominence in European concert halls. So Brahms had made just the right choice for the domestic context of this soiree, as have the two performers on this release: in making this recording, they have brought a piece of historical performance practice from the salons of the 19th century into the l iving rooms of our time.