Johannes Brahms

The low opus number (op. 8) of the Piano Trio in B major by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) is misleading It doesn’t refer to a juvenile work but to its revised version made decades later, included therefore amongst the chamber music pieces of his mature years. Just like Brahms’s composition, the Dumky Trio (op. 90, B. 166) by Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904) is a mature composer’s work. Though Dvorák had also written works in national tone earlier, the grand poetic quality appeared in his style at this time, for which the Dumky Trio is the nicest example. Performed by Péter Szabo.

Pöntinen and Thedéen perform Brahms’ two Cello Sonatas as well as a version for cello of Brahm’s Violin Sonata in G major Op.78. For a long time it was considered to be the composer’s own arrangement, but it is now known to have been made in 1879 by Paul Klengel, an acquaintance of Brahms’ and brother of the famous cellist Julius Klengel.

Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen made their first recording together almost 25 years ago and have continued to play together ever since, in recital and on disc. Their previous disc was an all-Schnittke programme, released to great acclaim: ‘Thedéen's playing is wonderfully expressive - focused, clean, beautifully voiced…’ wrote the reviewer in International Record Review. Naming the disc a ‘benchmark recording’, his colleague in BBC Music Magazine described the performers as a partnership ‘in a class of its own’.

Miklós Perényi was born in Budapest into a musical family. At the age of five he received his first cello lessons from Miklós Zsamboki, a former pupil of David Popper, and at the age of seven he was admitted to the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy Budapest where he studied with Professor Ede Banda. He made his debut in Budapest at the age of nine. He undertook further studies at the Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma with Professor Enrico Mainardi.

In 1962 he was a prize winner at the International Casals Competition held in Budapest. In 1965 and 1966 Pablo Casals invited him to join his master classes in Zermatt and Puerto Rico and this was followed by an invitation to perform at the Marlboro Festival in the next four consecutive years.

In 1974 he was appointed a teacher at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy Budapest, where he is now Professor of the cello department.

As an acknowledgement of his musical activites he was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1980, and the Bartok-Pasztory Prize in 1987. As a soloist and a chamber musician he has appeared in many musical centres and festivals in Europe as well as in America, Japan and China. He has a very extensive repertoire, including pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries to the present day.

On her clarinet, Sharon Kam expresses something for which there are no words. At one with her instrument, she thrills in this compilation with a virtuosic suppleness and sensitive cantabile in a class of its own. A firework display of vivacity and emotion. This reissue includes works by Weber, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Massenet.

The tradition of the Dresden Kreuzkirche choir stretches back seven centuries. The church’s four most recent directors of music are united in this collection, in which great sacred choral music illustrated the development of the boys’ choir from the beginning of the stereo era to the present day.

Sadly this talented conductor was killed in an air crash in Paris at the age of only 36. He had been named as the director of La Scala only a week before he died. This 5 CD set includes works by Mozart, Beethoven, Franck, Brahms, Debussy and Dvorak.

Newly appointed as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor after just one appearance with the ensemble, Yannick Nézet-Séguin came to London in April 2009 to conduct Brahms’s profound A German Requiem. He presided over a performance of rare reflection and inevitability at the Royal Festival Hall that prompted an extraordinary silence from a capacity audience. In the young Canadian’s hands, Brahms’s uplifting choral masterpiece is marked by astutely judged tempi, emphasising the drama and the moment and drawing in and immersing the listener into this live concert recording.

Press acclaim:

‘Under the conspicuously talented Yannick Nezet-Seguin it shone, it thundered, it inspired awe and consolation in equal measure. I can’t honestly remember when it last sounded so all-enveloping...With wonderfully sensitive and articulate singing from the London Philharmonic Choir the fine balance between the work’s deep and abiding compassion and its death-defying exultation was memorably achieved. Awe was duly forthcoming as the mighty cortege of “Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras” rolled out, low horns and pounding timpani accentuating its black splendour, and those fugal codas were properly rollocking, hopeful affairs – blasts from the past powering towards the future.’ The Independent, April 2009

‘The choral singing was wonderfully intense, and soloists Elizabeth Watts and Stéphane Degout were both outstanding. The long silence at its close, which no one dared fracture with applause, was testament to its impact.’ The Guardian, April 2009