Bruch Works for Clarinet and Viola
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Max Bruch
Label: Erato
Magazine Review Date: 11/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 2292-45483-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra |
Max Bruch, Composer
Gérard Causse, Viola Kent Nagano, Conductor Lyon Opera Orchestra Max Bruch, Composer Paul Meyer, Clarinet |
Romance |
Max Bruch, Composer
Gérard Causse, Viola Kent Nagano, Conductor Lyon Opera Orchestra Max Bruch, Composer |
(8) Pieces |
Max Bruch, Composer
François-René Duchâble, Piano Gérard Causse, Viola Max Bruch, Composer Paul Meyer, Clarinet |
Author: John Warrack
The Double Concerto and the Eight Pieces both stem from Bruch’s later years as a composer, by which time he was ill and tiring, also embittered and resentful of the successes being enjoyed by Strauss and Debussy (the latter “an unqualified scribbler”). His Concerto is not only a backward-looking and inward-looking work: it is the music of a weary composer with little more to say but the habit of a lifetime in saying it. The technique does not fail, though the last movement is thinly stretched; the manner is still lyrical, and makes graceful use both of the solo instruments and of the accompaniments. This is unusually disposed so that the chamber orchestra of the first movement gradually swells in numbers until it is virtually a full symphony orchestra for the finale. Some problems ensue for the viola, which is in any case cast in a secondary role to the clarinet.
Parity is restored with the Eight Pieces, though Bruch wrote them for the talents of his son Max Felix, a gifted clarinettist whose performance of these pieces earned him favourable comparison with the great Richard Muhlfeld from the conductor Fritz Steinbach. They are pleasant pieces, sometimes drawing on the tonal companionship which Mozart discovered the instruments to have in his Kegelstatt Trio, sometimes contrasting them with opposing kinds of music. No doubt they are enjoyable to play (though not at one sitting, which Bruch advised against), and they fall pleasingly on the ear.'
Parity is restored with the Eight Pieces, though Bruch wrote them for the talents of his son Max Felix, a gifted clarinettist whose performance of these pieces earned him favourable comparison with the great Richard Muhlfeld from the conductor Fritz Steinbach. They are pleasant pieces, sometimes drawing on the tonal companionship which Mozart discovered the instruments to have in his Kegelstatt Trio, sometimes contrasting them with opposing kinds of music. No doubt they are enjoyable to play (though not at one sitting, which Bruch advised against), and they fall pleasingly on the ear.'
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