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Brahms conducted amateur choirs throughout his professional life, both as a useful source of income and because he enjoyed his contact with enthusiastic, amateur music-makers, not least the ladies in his various choirs. It also gave him a chance to explore music of former eras, by Bach, Schütz, Buxtehude and more, which Brahms considered a vital part of his musical heritage and which, practically speaking, he was bringing back to life in a culture that barely knew its own history.

We may with some justice speak of Brahms the periodinstrument pioneer. These splendid modern performances come from a choir of a similar size to the one Brahms would have recognised, and are directed by the experienced choral trainer Nicol Matt.

For too long a gap in the Brilliant Classics catalogue,we are happy to present a superb recording of Brahms’ sacred masterwork, Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms’ Requiem, written in German and presenting bible texts selected by Brahms himself, was composed after the death of Brahms’ mother, a shattering experience for him. The dark aspects of Death are relieved by music of great tenderness and intimacy. Conducted by the great German conductor Herbert Kegel, and excellent soloists Mari-Anne Häggander and Siegfried Lorenz. Digital recording licensed from the Capriccio catalogue.

Including booklet notes and the sung texts.

One of the great choral works of the Western tradition, Brahms probably conceived his Ein deutsches Requiem – completed in 1868 – as a response to the passing of his mother as well as the tragic death of his close friend and mentor, Robert Schumann.The composition is the German’s largest in any medium, and one that was quick to enter the classical canon: first performed in 1869 to rave reviews, it is a masterpiece of technique and affect that continues to thrill both audiences and singers around the world. What makes Ein deutsches Requiem unique is Brahms’ unusual decision to compile the text himself; based on various passages of the Lutheran Bible, it’s not so much a requiem for the dead as one for the living – with the composer commenting that he could have happily exchanged the word ‘deutsches’ for ‘human’.

The work is cast in seven movements and is arrestingly performed by the Rundfunkchor/Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig.

Featuring a soprano and baritone soloist, it takes as its musical basis two principal ideas, which, after initial statements, are subject to repeated development throughout the piece. From the second movement’s heavy funeral march rhythms to the pivotal fourth’s serene pastorale and the dramatically imposing nature of the sixth, Brahms touches on an array of emotions that reflect the arch-like nature of the composition. Like all great music, Ein deutsches Requiem contains a universal message that goes beyond the circumstances of the work’s conception, and which is beautifully communicated in this recording. Full of symphonic breadth and effectively responsible for confirming Brahms’ status as a composer of international repute, it’s a piece that deserves to be an essential part of any serious listener’s library.

Håkon Austbø was born in Norway, and now resides on Holland.

In 1971 he won the prestigious Olivier Messiaen prize. His recording of Scriabin sonatas was praised by the Gramophone as ‘Scriabin playing that can stand comparison with the finest on record’.

Brahms was a formidable pianist, and his early works were written to show of his tremendous technique. The piano sonatas Opp. 1–3 typify the highly virtuosic muscular style that suited his performing style. Brahms never revisited the piano sonata form after these early works, and his output for solo piano falls distinctly in top three groups. The early impetuous works, then from 1854-73 the more technical works, and, finally the late works from the 1890s included on this CD. These works are contemplative and autumnal, though the drama and tensions of the earlier works are never far away. The Op.116 set is remarkable in that its seven linked numbers form a single unity. It is in fact a seven movement sonata. Op.117 contains probably some of the most beautiful music Brahms’s composed. The 3 Intermezzi are reflective, deeply personal works. Op.118 contains severe technical demands for the performer, as well as music of incredible passion and sadness. Op.119 contains a Rhapsody, which is widely regarded as a final tribute to his pianist friend Clara Schumann. Brahms was madly in love with her, but although they were great friends, his love went unrequited.

Lenneke Ruiten is quickly establishing herself as one of the leading sopranos of her generation. She started her tuition with Maria Rondel en Meinard Kraak in The Hague, and subsequently took lessons with Elle Ameling, Robert Holl, Hans Hotter, Walter Berry and Robert Tear.

Her breakthrough came with winning the International Vocalist Competition of ¡¥s Hertogenbosch. She sang in all the important opera houses of Europe, and with conductors like Gardiner, Bruggen, Biondi, Koopman, Dantone.

In 2011 she made her Salzburger Festspiele debut in Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Christian Thielemann. This well chosen selection of Brahms songs shows her warm timbre, her wide range of colours and her complete understanding of the text.

New recording: one of a series of releases from Brilliant Classics featuring outstanding young artists who have won the principal prizes at the Young Pianist Foundation’s National Piano Competition.

Thomas Beijer, born in 1988, started playing and studying the piano at the age of 8. A pupil of Jan Wijn, he won the prestigious Dutch Young Pianist Foundation Prize in 2007. He performs frequently both in the Netherlands and internationally.

Brahms’s output for solo piano spans his creative life, from the early Scherzo Op.4 of 1851, to the late Intermezzi Opp. 116–9. The Third Sonata Op.5, the central work on this disc, was the last to be written for solo piano – all his other sonatas being for piano with violin, cello, clarinet/viola. It is a heroic, large-scale piece, presenting considerable technical demands for the pianist. Cast in five movements, the fourth is an intermezzo, a form that Brahms became preoccupied with later in his career. The second movement is prefaced with lines from a poem by Sternau: ‘The twilight falls, the moonlight gleams, two hearts in loveunite, embraced in blissful rapture.’

Schumann described Brahms’s three sonatas for piano as ‘symphonies in disguise’, such is their size and temperament. The first of the two works in Op.79 was originally to be called ‘capriccio’, but an exchange with Brahms’s publisher Simrock settled the matter and ‘ Rhapsody’ became the term for both these thrilling works. They are marked ‘agitato’ and ‘passionato’ respectively.

The chamber works of Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) have long been seen as a window onto the German composer’s rigorous, intricate approach to composition and restrained yet Romantic style. This is true of his piano quartets; although he only composed three, in their individual characters and masterful control of musical material, they are an integral aspect of Brahms’s chamber output.

The Piano Quartet in G minor Op.25, the earliest of Brahms’s works in this genre, reveals the composer’s great creativity. Based on short motifs that are continuously extended and combined to form larger structures, it draws on song-like melodies in the first movement and Hungarian folk music in the finale, to create a work that, at times, seems to stray into the territory of orchestral music.

The second Quartet in A Op.26 is relaxed and expansive in comparison, with flowing, extended melodies that retain a sense of control and poise, while The Piano Quartet No.3 in C minor is the most dramatic, practically operatic in style. Since the initial release of this popular Brilliant Classics recording, its performers have gone from strength to strength. While Isabelle Faust has forged a reputation as one of the leading international violinists, particularly in chamber music, Derek Han, Bruno Giuranna and Alain Meunier are some of the most acclaimed musicians in their fields. Chamber music enthusiasts should not be without this world-class recording in their collections.

The songs of Brahms span his entire, 60-year creative life, and contain many of his most personal utterances, as well as many of his most charming. From the jolly, openhearted, rustic charm of the Volkslieder to the cool refined beauty of the Sapphische Ode, Brahms’s lyrical gift is everywhere evident, according to each song only the weight of expression that is appropriate to its temper.

Countless babies have been rocked to sleep by the Wiegenlied, but they would quickly be woken again by the soul-searching despair of his last essays in the genre, the Four Serious Songs. Complete sets of this extensive part of Brahms’s output are hard to come by – there is but one other currently available – and this is the only one recorded in entirely modern, digital technology. Many of the individual volumes feature some of the best young singers of their generation, guided by the experienced accompanimental hand of Helmut Deutsch.

Johannes Brahms really admired the symphonies by Beethoven. So much so that he did not finish his first symphony until after his 40th birthday. Three more symphonies followed. The last two of these are given glowing performances here by the Nederlands Filharmonisch Orkest under Jaap van Zweden.