Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114

“Overall, these musicians have an especially strong and fine sense of line. The Horn Trio is full of echt-Romantic vistas and half-lights...The Clarinet Trio is a revelation: not at all the austere, reserved piece it often seems, but deeply poetic and full of late autumnal colours.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 ****

“there is spontaneous engagement with the music and such a heroic sweep to the playing...(Peterkova's clarinet playing in the Op. 114 Trio is absolutely magical)...The Smetana Trio is thus at or near the top of my short-list of relatively recent recordings of these glorious works.” International Record Review, May 2013

“What the Smetana may lack in polish they make up for in exciting raw edged playing. This rather sets them apart from other ensembles.” MusicWeb International, April 2013

“...the playing, by Richard Hosford (clarinet), Paul Watkins (cello) and Ian Brown (piano), does...ample justice to the work’s passionate melancholy...The splendid performance of the piano quartet shows the young Brahms’s intellectual power and melodic abundance to magnificent advantage.” Sunday Times, 2nd May 2010 ****

“An account of an early performance of the Trio said it was "as though the instruments were in love with one another" – which could equally fit this recording of the Piano Quartet No 2, such is the effortless mastery of the Nash Ensemble.” The Observer, 9th May 2010

“These are beautifully expressive, thoughtful performances of two unalloyed masterpieces, presented with all the sonic excellence and distinction that we've come to expect from Onyx's series of recording with the Nash Ensemble...The middle movements especially strike me as outstanding, with a wonderful sense of regret and melancholy in the Adagio.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 *****

“[this] new recording keeps its wilder emotions suppressed, ever simmering under the surface. It's an approach that works well in late Brahms, especially when the playing is as classy as this: listen to the swirling pianissimo scales that close the first movement - breathtaking.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2010

“In the First Sonata, in which Rysanov is accompanied by the excellent Katya Apekisheva, the music is more freely phrased, with a humorous sense of the latent waltz in the Allegretto and plenty of vigour in the finale. Rysanoc and Jacob Katsnelson are also more effective with the Second Sonata, especially in the agreeably conversational manner they adopt in the final variations, as when the melodic line flows seamlessly between them in the grazioso section.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2009

“…I found Rysanov's performances of both Sonatas compelling, vivid and packed with moments of great musical insight. The two trio performances are also extremely enjoyable…” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 ****

“Brahms was the first to admit that he hadn't entirely solved the new problems of balance in the works that replace the clarinet with a viola (the clarinet sonatas and the Op 114 Trio). With recording, of course, some help can be given.
The viola is well forward in the performances by Rysanov, and this suits the music's extrovert, eloquent manner. In the First Sonata, in which Rysanov is accompanied by the excellent Katya Apekisheva, the music is more freely phrased, with a humorous sense of the latent waltz in the Allegretto and plenty of vigour in the finale. In the Op 114 Trio, the outside movements benefit from the vivid sense of melodic direction provided by Rysanov and Katsnelson.
The G major Violin Sonata was also written for Joachim, and arranged for viola not by Brahms but by his publisher Simrock's editor Paul Klengel. Transposing it from G down a fourth to D to accommodate the viola loses the music something of its elegance, but this is a persuasive performance. Persuasiveness is also needed in Op 40, which began life as the Horn Trio. Not all the cheerful vigour that Rysanov and Apekisheva provide can make the finale seem anything but a piece of hunting exuberance, but they do splendidly with the Scherzo and the Adagio mesto.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…Power makes a convincing case for these arrangements… His tone is strong… but capable of some variety in colour and expression. Power's musical relationship with Simon-Crawford-Phillips, and especially with Tim Hugh in the Trio, gives a lot of pleasure.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 ****

“Viola players have reason to be grateful to Brahms for giving them the chance to perform the two Op 120 sonatas, originally for clarinet.
It's less well known that he similarly provided a viola part as alternative to clarinet for the Op 114 Trio. For the sonatas he reworked the part, adding a few chords and double stops, as well as transposing some of it downwards (to exploit the instrument's generally lower tessitura) but in the Trio he contented himself with a simple transcription. In Lawrence Power's hands the extensive use of the viola's upper register poses no problem; he commands a wide tonal spectrum throughout his range, and there's no sense of strain. The Trio does lose something without clarinet, sounding more monochrome as the viola and cello blend together. This blending can, of course, be an advantage – the two string instruments in octaves, in the Adagio, make a wonderful sound. And this is a very fine performance, of exceptional expressive range, from extreme delicacy to thrilling power.
The sonatas as played here will surely demonstrate (even to clarinettists) that the viola version is in no way second best. Particularly enjoyble in the Second Sonata, is the second movement's dark passion, relieved by glowing intensity in the middle section, where Simon Crawford-Phillips manages exactly to convey Brahms's forte ma dolce e ben cantando. The final variations are just as impressive, each one so well characterised yet perfectly paced so that the coda seems an inevitable climax to the whole work.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“These players bring a welcome nobility to the Horn Trio, even if the passion and opulence of Tuckwell & Co (Decca) remain persuasive. The autumnal intensity of the Clarinet Trio is also well caught.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 ***

“This Brahms Quintet projects all the virtuosity and Weltschmerz one could want.” Los Angeles Times

“the sonority remains warm and full, and in the clarinet trio balance could scarcely be bettered. It would certainly be hard to imagine lovelier reproduction of Dolezal’s burnished cello … the atmosphere is seductively Viennese, warm and relaxed … The sound and balance seems to me, virtually ideal” Gramophone Magazine (Clarinet & Horn Trios)

“glowing piano and string tone” Gramophone Magazine (Piano Quintet)

“The eloquent soaring clarinet line of the openingphrase immediately sets the seal on what is to be a passionately committed reading throughout […] the element of nostalgia is not missing, with the Adagio tenderly eloquent from clarinet and strings alike.” Gramophone Magazine, October 1981 (Clarinet Quintet)