Johannes Brahms; Robert Schumann - Ehnes & Armstrong play Brahms & Schumann

Information

Composer: Johannes Brahms; Robert Schumann

• Schumann - Märchenbilder, Op. 113
• Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No. 1, Op. 120 No. 1 (Version for Viola and Piano)
• Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No. 2, Op. 120 No. 2 (Version for Viola and Piano)
• Brahms - 5 Lieder, Op. 49: No. 4, Wiegenlied (Version for Viola and Piano)

James Ehnes, viola

Andrew Armstrong, piano

Date: 2024

Label: Onyx Classics

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Schumann composed his Märchenbilder (Fairy-Tale Pictures) in only a few days in March 1851. No specific stories are attached to these pieces, leaving the imagination free, while – in common with several of Schumann’s works – they are imbued with a potent sense of fantasy.

In the two sonatas of 1894 Brahms’s original scoring for the clarinet is beautifully idiomatic, exploiting the effectiveness of rapid arpeggios and the instrument’s ease in moving between registers. This latter facility is illustrated by octave displacement within a melody, thereby enhancing expressive tension – as in the opening theme of the F minor Sonata. In adapting the sonatas for viola Brahms subtly modifed the clarinet part at certain points.