Brahms: Two songs for contralto with viola obbligato, Op. 91

This collection of songs for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano is a must for all Lieder connoisseurs, not only for the unusual coupling but also for the three soloists. Included is the world premiere of Christian Jost’s Hamlet sequence. Stella Doufexis is widely in demand and has specialised in Lied interpretation.

A unique disc of music for voice, viola and piano, with works contrasting the romance of the old world with the realism and optimism of the new. Charles Martin Loeffler was a German composer who emigrated to the USA, and this represents the première recording of his Quatre Poèmes, a haunting set of four songs with viola. Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson could not be more different. Set after the second world war, they represent a more angular view of nature and the transitory nature of life. Between these two sit Brahms and Bridge, representatives of another age – another world.

After two successful discs for Mirare the Modigliano Quartet now present two facets of Brahms chamber music separated by 20 years in time: a masterly achievement.

Maxim Rysanov completes his survey of all Brahms’s chamber works to feature the viola.

On this companion CD to ONYX4033 he is joined by Alice Coote and Ashley Wass in the Two Songs op.91, and takes the solo viola part – the clarinet role – in the op.115 Quintet.

Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinettist for whom Brahms wrote his two sonatas and the quintet, managed to coax Brahms out of self-imposed retirement, and the result is the wonderful Indian summer of late chamber works. Joseph Joachim remarked that the clarinet parts would work well transcribed for viola. Brahms lavished much care on these arrangements, and they have entered the repertoire for the viola, in contrast to the transcriptions of the clarinet sonatas for violin, which remain virtually unperformed.

There may also have been a commercial motive in making such adaptations: the wider the market for chamber music, the more money the publisher and composer would receive. Either way, these transcriptions are valuable additions to the repertoire of the viola.

Maxim Rysanov performed at the 2010 BBC Proms, including the Last Night.

Just in time for the 34th International Viola Congress (June 7-11, 2006) in Montreal, an all-Brahms, all-viola CD. An instrument too often misunderstood, even disliked, the viola takes its rightful place here in the hands of Steven Dann, one of the country’s best chamber musicians. Alongside the viola, there is the “astonishingly beautiful voice” of Susan Platts, with her “powerful and sharp register, flowing like honey toward the rich depths of a contralto.” (Washington Post) On the piano, the excellent Lambert Orkis, who often plays with Arleen Augér, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Anner Bylsma, Jaap Schroeder, etc.