Reger: Sonata for Viola/Clarinet and Piano in A flat major, Op. 49 No. 1

'Brahms is not easy to approach. He likes to conceal the beauties of his works, and one only becomes conscious of them trhough a deep knowledge of his music.' Max Reger 1894

“Max Reger’s comment could have just as well applied to his own music, which is also reputedly difficult to get to grips with. When we plunged into studying his Opus 49 Sonatas, it was only after sorting through their many-stranded complexity - and especially their intricate harmonic patterns - that we were able to appreciate their beauty. It was much liked the Albumblatt (Album leaf), a short piece written in the same period as the Opus 49 Sonatas, that it would have been impossible not to include it, too. “ Florent Héau & Patrick Zygmanowski

Florent Heau won praise for his recordings of Mozart’s chamber music for clarinet in 2008, an album which received excellent support from Classic FM.

A distinguished soloist and teacher, Janet Hilton is a professor at the Royal College of Music, London. Multiple prize-winner Jakob Fichert is an expert on Reger’s piano and chamber works

Prize-winning Dutch clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer performs the two Sonatas, opus 49 and the Sonata No 3, opus 107 by Max Reger, accompanied by pianist Hans Eijsackers.

In 1894 Max Reger heard the clarinet sonatas that Brahms wrote for Richard Mühlfeld, a clarinettist he greatly admired, and was so taken with them that he decided to follow suit. The result was a series of thoughtful and challenging pieces. The first two works were written in 1900, and assigned the opus number 49. The third, opus 107, which is much more melodious and accessible, came about eight or nine years later.

The Dutch clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer studied at the Juilliard School for Music on a Fulbright International Scholarship. In 1999 he made his debut in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and since then he has performed in many of the world’s greatest concert venues including the Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. Hans Eijsackers graduated at the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music in Amsterdam in 1992, where he studied with Koos Bons, Gerard van Blerk, Jan Wijn, and György Sebök. At the age of 13 he won the Rotterdam Piano-Driedaagse and Princess Christina Competition and in 1991 the European Piano Competition