Further Details

Title: Clarinet Quintet
Condition: New
Format: CD
EAN: 0812864018288
Genre: Classical
Description: EDITORIAL REVIEWS
REVIEW
Suffering from cancer, perhaps Brahms, in his final years, was suffused with the concept of his own oncoming doom, spurred on by the deaths of his sister Elise, Elizabeth von Herzogenberg, Hermione Spies, his brother Fritz, Theodor Broth, and his dearest friend--Clara Schumann. All these close friends and relatives died between 1892 and 1896, and Brahms died in spring of 1897. The timbre of the clarinet, with its similarity to the human voice, makes it a plangent instrument with which Brahms could express his final sigh of resignation before the void. Perhaps because the word "death" is not in the titles, I have found only few descriptions referring to the clarinet works as "autumnal," and no mention of them as Brahms's "elegiac" swan song. I feel a little over-extended here, because I do get a feeling of overwhelming yearning when I listen to them.

I have more than a passing interest in clarinet music. I grew up listening to my father's favorite, Benny Goodman's recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto that led me to the then-available Reginald Kell recordings of the clarinet repertoire; the Mozart Clarinet Concerto (later, Gervase de Peyer's reading), the Mozart Clarinet Quintet (later, Thea King's version), and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, op. 115, 1891 (Ronald van Spaendonck's recent interpretation). The Brahms Quintet might have been written for Kell--his technique matches the music so well. Kell's control, his ability to hold notes a long time on pitch without warble (all the while employing no vibrato), subtly suggesting a woman's sighing or a child's weeping, amazed me. On these new recordings, it is as if clarinetist Manno had studied with Kell.

In a 1933 article by Arnold Schoenberg, "Brahms, the Progressive," he mentions "Brahms's fondness for motivic saturation." Wikipedia defines a motif as: "a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, a musical fragment or succession of notes [a clarinet's sigh?] that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition." Further, Wikipedia states, "Motivic saturation is `the immersion of a musical motive in a composition,' i.e., keeping motifs and themes below the surface or playing with their identity." With these clarifying words in mind, I've come to view the Clarinet Quintet as Brahms's yearning commentary on the end of each of our lives. In this light, the Brahms works for clarinet (taken as a whole), become more than an exercise in composing clarinet music for a friend, but music at its most universal, most profound.

Was Brahms becoming more resigned to his own passing and the clarinet his means of expressing it? Can you imagine such music played on the flatulent French horn? A zingy string instrument? A nasal oboe or English horn? A flute? The clarinet seems more the contralto voice Brahms was seeking. Did Brahms have such works in mind, and then cultivate the friendship of Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinet virtuoso? Or did he become friends with Mühlfeld first and then write the pieces for him? Or was it dumb luck that brought the two together? In his liner notes, Manno observes; "What obviously fascinated Brahms about Richard Mühlfeld's interpretation, above all, was his particularly `tender' phrasing, which prompted Brahms to give him the affectionate nickname `Fräulein Klarinette.'" There is something feminine about surrender, and especially surrender to death. Mühlfeld and Manno both intuitively understand this.

Consider how the minor mode lends a funereal tone and an obvious aspect of mourning to the piece, especially in contrast to the sunnier sounds of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet. (The Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets are performed by the Karol Szymanowski Quartet, Ronald van Spaendonck, clarinet, on BBC 227 (2002). The Szymanowski group and Spaendonck offer the Brahms with sensitivity, particularly the slow middle movements, also with vibrato withheld.) On balance, I prefer Manno's approach. Judging from his own liner notes, I assume Manno has done his homework a bit more thoughtfully, but just a bit.

While playing Brahms's clarinet sonatas for clarinet and piano, there is no hiding; and I hear these masked, yet suggestively mournful, techniques in a more pronounced manner. Sonatas 1 and 2 (op. 120, 1894) were among Brahms's final compositions. Manno plays the sonatas with a sad, dreamy, wistful quality. Another recording of these sonatas, BBC 126 (2004), featuring clarinetist Jonathan Cohler, occasionally shows a shrill edge; he plays some long notes with rising volume, stopping at the lower boundary of a shriek, which might be interpreted as a wail of despair. It demonstrates Cohler's exquisite control and adds a modern, neurotic dimension to Cohler's view of Brahms. The Manno version is more "inside the cranium" of dear Brahms, a self-described "melancholic," and tenderly resigned to his fate.

This Oehms Classics 2009 reading of Ralph Manno's clarinet and Alfredo Pearl's piano opens new doors for me to the autumnal Brahms clarinet sonatas, together with their reading of the elegiac Brahms Clarinet Quintet (op. 115). These readings are the most sensitive interpretations of these pieces I've yet heard: less lugubrious than Kell, a tad more thoughtful than Spaendonck, a smidgeon less shrill than Cohler, and nice to have in one Brahms collection, a two-CD album mostly of the clarinet music. Serious collectors, take note!

The sometimes low-profile approach to the early Brahms Piano Quintet (op. 34) is in contra-distinction to the usually bloated Beethovenesque aggression so frequently presented. I'm not saying it's too obviously slow. More precisely I mean it leans toward understatement in an extremely thoughtful way, and without slowing the progress to a crawl. It is a piece that dates back to Brahms as a student, and it has something of Beethoven's swagger, played with Brahms's sense of restraint. That is not to say that Brahms lacked for self-assertion; as we know, he seemed also to have a feel for choral works such as Ein Deutches Requiem, his "Lullaby," and other delicacies. Brahms's restraint is on display, at least in those moments where other groups go over the top for the big effect, and we can see how Alfredo Pearl's playing in the Piano Quintet often moves toward low-balling, or toward whatever is the opposite of over the top.

This release supports my sense that these are really strong readings where less is more. Both of the featured musicians are able to call certain passages to our attention by lowering their voices, an old siding salesman's trick. I'm not saying they have reinvented Brahms; rather, they seem to understand what Brahms was up to in writing clarinet music at that particular period of his life, and they recognize Brahms's penultimate works as a meditation on losing one's loved ones, and on anticipating one's own upcoming demise. Can you imagine losing your spouse, a brother and a sister, and four or five of your best friends in the span of five years? If you love Brahms (Aimez vous Brahms?) or the clarinet, I shamelessly tout this collection without reservation. I consider this album "very highly recommended." If you are new to Brahms's chamber music, this is a quick way to get right on it. -- Fanfare, Ilya Oblomov, Jan-Feb 2010

This German release, to quote Winston Churchill, is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Except for some words on Brahms and the works in question, the liner notes say nothing about the performers or why these two CDs, recorded in 1995 and 1992, need to be reissued.

The performances are highly expressive, full of colorful phrasing, lyrical indulgence, and heart-stopping intensity; but the recording varies from piece to piece, and while the much of the playing is of high quality, it is sometimes difficult to make more detailed assessments. The microphones in the Piano Quintet, for example, sound much more distant than in the Clarinet Quintet--almost to the point where Brahms's string writing becomes muddy and the piano evokes the timbre of a tinny music box. This is unfortunate, because the performers take great joy digging into the music, and there are truly wonderful moments.

Naturally, the Clarinet Quintet and Sonatas will interest clarinetists, who may or may not have heard of Ralph Manno. Born in 1964, Manno embarked on an early career as an orchestral player, but in 1993, at the age of 29, his appointment to the faculty of the famous Hochschule für Musik in Cologne led him in the direction of a solo and chamber career. These recordings, which date from that time, reveal a player of great sensitivity and artistic commitment, but still in need of work on his legato playing. He also seems little aware of what happens to his sound at loud volumes, where it often spreads, causes intonation problems, and is generally unpleasant.

The back cover proclaims one critic's opinion that this package was once "the hit of the year". It's a good effort, but not quite in that category. -- American Record Guide, Patrick Hanudel, November 2009
No Of Discs: 2
Artist: Perl
Record Label: Oehms Classics

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