MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Buy through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

Sound Samples and Downloads

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Cello, Op. 114 (1891) [25:31]
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1 (1894) [24:00]
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E flat major, Op. 120, No. 2 (1894) [22:19]
Karl Leister (clarinet); Ferenc Bognár (piano); Wolfgang Boettcher (cello)
rec. Teldec Studio, Berlin, Germany, 12-16 February 1997. DDD
NIMBUS NI 5600 [72:10]

Experience Classicsonline



 
It is well known that Brahms had announced his retirement as a composer, when he was so impressed by the playing of the Meiningen Orchestra clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld that he produced four of his greatest chamber works during the last years of his life. The three works on this disc plus the Clarinet Quintet represent the greatest music for the instrument after Mozart and Weber, at least through the end of the nineteenth century. All four compositions have that autumnal quality associated with late Brahms.
 
Karl Leister is one of the world’s foremost clarinetists, having performed for many years as principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. In general, his tone is very mellow without the stridency that is typical of some clarinetists. Yet it does not preclude boldness when that is called for. He seems to me the perfect soloist for these particular pieces. There have been many recordings made with this combination of works, including the recent one by Martin Fröst on BIS that has been widely praised. In most cases, Leister’s tempos are slower than Fröst’s, but in no way do I feel Leister is dragging. Indeed, for example, the last movement of the Clarinet Sonata No. 1, marked vivace, while slower than Fröst’s, has greater lilt, and Fröst sounds rather rushed in comparison. Likewise in the same sonata’s third movement (Allegretto grazioso), Fröst’s focus seems to be on the allegretto marking, whereas Leister brings out the grazioso element better. And so it goes throughout the disc. The balance between clarinet and piano here is exemplary, too, without the clarinet being recorded so closely that the important piano part has to take a back seat. Brahms, after all a pianist himself, always treated the piano as an equal partner in his duo sonatas. Ferenc Bognár proves to be an excellent Brahmsian, with clear articulation and appropriate weighting of the bass notes. The Clarinet Trio is equally fine here, and Wolfgang Boettcher is warmly expressive as the cellist. These are truly beautiful performances, recorded very well in an intimate acoustic and without noticeable reverberation.
 
Colin Lawson provides detailed notes in the CD booklet, with the emphasis placed on the history of the works rather than any in-depth structural analysis. For this particular combination of chamber works featuring the clarinet, then, the performances and recording here are as good as any I’ve heard.
 

Leslie Wright

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.