Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 (original version reconstructed by Jorge Rotter) (1857/8)
Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16 (1860)
Linos Ensemble
rec. 2020, Sendesaal des Saarländischen Rundfunks, Saarbrücken
CAPRICCIO C5447 [75]
These serenades are usually heard in Brahms’ fully orchestrated version, but here the Linos play them in their original, chamber music form – or, in the case of No. 2, as close as a reconstruction can guess how it sounded, as the original score is no longer extant. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to employing fourteen or fifteen individual players as opposed to a whole orchestra but the resultant sonorities here fall very gratefully on the ear and a kind rustic joy permeates the work which seems both to borrow from Beethoven’s Pastoral as well as look forward to “country music” of the kind we hear in, for example, Bizet’s L'Arlésienne.
These are early works by a young composer but there is already a kind of “through-composed” confidence to Brahms’ marshalling of a stream of melodies; the ear is constantly enchanted. (A small point; the otherwise helpful note by James Bosch refers to the opening movement of No. 1 as Allegro moderato, when that in fact applies to No. 2, and No. 1 is indeed Allegro molto, swiftly and upliftingly executed here.) The ensuing triple-time Scherzo goes with a swing, the cheerful Trio balancing the slightly dark-hued outer sections pervaded by a typical – or perhaps Schubertian derived? – Angst. The Adagio is similarly both lyrical and a little clouded by melancholy; the notes refer to contemporary critics’ complaints that this central movement with its spiralling variations is too long at eleven minutes, to which I can only respond by observing that short attention spans are clearly not a modern invention. Two charming, if somewhat inconsequential, minuets follow, and what is essentially a divertissement or divertimento work is neatly concluded with, first, a jolly horn romp then an ebullient Rondo Allegro.
The second Serenade is a substantially shorter, more concentrated work and sounds rather more like mature Brahms, less an hommage to classical predecessors and more akin to chamber works such as the sextet of the same year. A restless, moto perpetuo Scherzo precedes a soulful Adagio which Brahms’ friend Clara Schumann described as “marvellously beautiful” and of a “church-like quality”. I can’t say I hear that myself in its three-quarter-time lilt but there is certainly a certain reverential quality to it. A limping Quasi minuetto which gives prominence to wind instruments leads into another cheerful rondo which concludes on a resounding A major chord.
This is not, perhaps “major” Brahms but the playing here is immaculate throughout and the sound beautifully balanced, with every instrument coming to the fore when called upon and a real sense of space to the acoustic.
Ralph Moore
