Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 18

“Gorgeous chamber music-making - urgently recommended” Fanfare

“A red wine, red-meat disc from the must-have boutique label” The Independent on Sunday

“The Brahms String Sextets… make an ideal coupling on disc. The Nash Ensemble, with a particularly strong line-up of violas and cellos, offer superb new versions, crisp and clear, beautifully co-ordinated, with plenty of light and shade, and infectious springing of rhythms.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“The Nash Ensemble, with a particularly strong line-up of violas and cellos, offer superb new versions, crisp and clear, beautifully coordinated, with plenty of light and shade, and infectious springing of rhythms.
There is real precision and polish of ensemble here that marks the Nash performances out.
The players appear to be listening keenly and responding to one another. The Nash omit exposition repeats in the first movement of each sextet, unlike the older versions. As a sampler try the delectable third movement Scherzo of No 1, which with the Nash Ensemble is beautifully and wittily sprung, one of the gems of Brahms's chamber music.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Classic FM Magazine commenting that Matthies and Köhn’s “performances are warm, clear and forthright, while deftly side-stepping the piano duet medium’s tendency to sound turgid.”

“Completed after the First Piano Concerto, but still comparatively early works, the Sextets are typified by lush textures, ardent emotion, and wonderfully memorable melodic lines. The first is the warmer, more heart-on-the-sleeve piece, balancing with complete naturalness a splendidly lyrical first movement, an urgent, dark set of intricate variations, a lively rustic dance of a Scherzo, and a placidly flowing finale. The second inhabits at first a more mysterious world of half-shadows, occasionally rent by glorious moments of sunlight. The finale, however, casts off doubt and ends with affirmation. Both works are very susceptible to differing modes of interpretation, and the Raphael Ensemble has established distinctive views of each, allowing the richness of the texture its head without obscuring the lines, and selecting characteristically distinct tone qualities to typify the two works.
The recording is clear and analytic without robbing the sound of its warmth and depth. An impressive recording début for this ensemble.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“the Raphael Ensemble are fully responsive to [the Sextets'] vitality and warmth. In short these are superb performances, and the recording is very vivid and immediate.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition