Brahms & Reger Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano

Guy Yehuda - Clarinet Ralph Votapek - Piano CD 1 BRAHMS: CLARINET SONATA IN F MINOR, OP. 120, NO. 1 I. Allegro appassionato 7:56 II. Andante, un poco adagio 5:04 III. Allegretto grazioso 4:17 IV. Vivace 5:24 REGER: CLARINET SONATA IN A-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 49, NO. 1 I. Allegro affanato 7:53 II. Vivace 4:11 III. Larghetto 3:47 IV. Prestissimo assai 4:48 CD 2 BRAHMS: CLARINET SONATA IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 120, NO. 2 I. Allegro amabile 8:25 II. Allegro appassionato 5:06 III. Andante con moto - Allegro 7:00 REGER: CLARINET SONATA IN F-SHARP MINOR, OP. 49, NO. 2 I. Allegro dolente 8:32 II. Vivacissimo 2:51 III. Larghetto 4:28 IV. Allegro affabile 5:08 Johannes Brahms (1833-97) composed the Two Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano, op. 120, in 1894 after a budding acquaintance with Richard Mühfeld, clarinetist in the Meiningen Court Orchestra in the spring of 1891. Brahms’ interest in Mühfeld was sparked by one particular performance featuring the clarinetist as soloist on Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto in F Minor and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. Mühfeld’s reputation for beauty and warmth of sound is often still referred to today when discussing performance of these two sonatas. Performing on a modified Müller system instrument, with added rings, stuffed pads, and string ligature, Mühfeld is said to have produced a richly dark, mellow tone, a reputation that remains legendary today. Recent improved mechanisms on the instrument and the dark, expressive sound that resulted had earned the clarinet a reputation as a “romantic” instrument, richly sentimental and highly vocal in its musical personality. Brahms’ intrigue with the instrument led to discussions with Mühfeld, and a recital was arranged in which the clarinetist performed his entire solo repertoire for the composer . It is to this association that we can attribute his Trio in A Major, Op. 114 (1891) for clarinet, cello, and piano, and his Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 (1891) for clarinet and string quartet. This is particularly noteworthy when considering the fact that Brahms had made the claim to close friends that he had retired from composing. Three years later, the two Sonatas were completed and presented to Mühfeld, and the pair went on to premiere them on September 19, 1894, in the manner in which they were written, as a pair to be performed consecutively and together. Viennese music critic Hanslick included the following in his review: “Within two days, we have heard two new, still unprinted compositions by Brahms: sonatas for clarinet and piano. Every new piece of this sparing, modest composer sets our audience in a festive mood. This time, his magnificent clarinet quintet proves a hopeful decadence. One after another, a quintet, a trio, and two sonatas- Brahms’ late love for the clarinet seems to have developed into a real bride-hood. C.M. von Weber and Brahms, two fundamentally different characters, meet here in their preference for this organ of enthusiastic romanticism; because of the face of the personal inspiration by an ideal clarinetist. Weber found him in Baermann, Brahms in Mr. Richard Mühfeld, the famous wind angel of the ducal chapel on Meinengen. We are grateful for these new clarinet sonatas as uniquely valuable additions to our chamber music. Differing from the quintet, the clarinet unquestioningly has the leading voice; the composer, who keeps it wisely within the boundaries of of its pretty effects, does not have very much scope at his disposal. There is no way for him to bring something surprisingly new in each of the eight sonata movements without reminding from time to time of passages in his earlier clarinet compositions... ...In the F-minor sonata, the first movement (also an Allegro appassionato) is musically the most important, not so much because of its melodic invention but by its numerous ingenious combinations. An idyllic short Andante in A-flat major uses, in nice alternation, all higher and lower sound effects of the clarinet... ...Although not belonging to the works which are difficult to understand, their finest traits are not just superficial. The historical inauguration and the aura of the Viennese premiere is of course not granted to every city: Brahms and Mühfeld in peaceable cooperation! Concerning Mühfeld’s incomparable artistry I can only notice that it is the same as ever. To watch Brahms, the creator of these beautiful things, at the piano, means as always, a joyfully touching sight for us. At times it seems that he plays towards himself and for himself rather that for the audience- a bit like Schumann used to conduct-but nobody can ever replace him.” Simrock published the first edition of these works in 1895 from a fair copy presented by the composer. A version of the autograph of the first sonata reveals that the opening statement of the theme in the clarinet underwent several revisions with regard to range. The original notation appears as we are accustomed to hearing it, yet Brahms had rewritten this down an octave. Then, at some later date, he wrote “8ve” beside it once more in pencil. Many speculations have been made regarding the reasoning for this, including the plausibility that Mühfeld (who also made corrections on the autograph copy) did not feel that entering in the lower range on his particular instrument would sing as well as it would up an octave, since this range on his dark instrument likely would not have projected well in the lower register. If we look at this passage anew, in the lower range, there is an entirely different logic to the opening and how it relates to Brahms’ Allegro appassionato marking. A tension is presented by the climb in range that occurs in the 13th bar that would not have otherwise been evident, and the return that occurs later in the movement would the relate more directly to the original statement, developing again through a climb in register by way of an ascending triplet figure. This recording features the opening statement in the lower register, a practice that deviates from the norm. Unlike many of his predecessors, including Brahms, whose sources of inspiration for clarinet works emerged from an association with a dynamic clarinetist, Max Reger (1873-1916), drew his influence from the composers who had written such additions to the instrument’s repertoire. Mozart and Brahms had both written significant works for the clarinet repertoire as a result of relationships with their performer friends. Mozart had written his trio and quintet (among many others) with Anton Stadler in mind, and we have already discussed how Richard Mühfeld inspired Brahms’ clarinet quintet, trio, and sonatas. Reger composed his two op. 49 Sonatas in Ab major and f# minor in 1900. Henle’s preface to the Urtext edition provides a humorous recounting of the possible genesis of these works from Reger’s first piano teacher: “In Weiden at that time we had a first-rate clarinetist, the city’s Kapellmeister Johann Kürmeyer, with whom I spent many an hour making music. His ability showed itself in a polished artistic maturity, for after many years of activity as the solo clarinetist in a regimental band he had studied for two years at the music academy in Munich with the aim of acquiring the best training on his instrument. One day at my home I was playing Brahms’s Clarinet Sonata op. 120 [no. 1] in f minor with Kürmeyer [...]. While we were playing, Reger entered the room, listened to us and, once we had finished, said ‘Good! I too shall write two of those!’” (Lindner, Max Reger. Ein Bild seines Jugendlebens und Künstleruschen Werdung, Stuttgsrt, 1923, p. 218.) It would take Reger less than two weeks to complete the first of these works, according to dates on his autograph manuscript. He began the work in early May 1900, and had it completed by the 12th of that same month. And by the end of the next month, both sonatas were complete. The sonatas were dedicated to clarinetist Karl Wagner (1873– 1950), who gave the first performance of the first Sonata in Munich in April 1902, accompanied by Reger. The second Sonata was premiered almost exactly two years later, in 1904, also in Munich by Max Reger and Anton Walch. Reger’s compositional style reflects the time in which he lived; German Romanticsm converging with emerging Modernism. In his 43 years, he composed a great many works for nearly every genre. His final completed work was the Clarinet Quintet Op. 146. While certainly inspired by Brahms, Reger also sought a distance from his predecessor, and while similarities certainly abound and are demonstrated in the sonatas, the differences also stand out. Reger, like Brahms, does not shy away from length, and in fact takes this element to epic proportions at times. In Reger’s works, tonality is never abandoned, but does serve as a point of departure and arrival, as if sending the listener on a scavenger hunt through distant keys, chord patterns, and increasing chromaticism. The harmonic lines in fact at times take precedence over the melodic line. © Tasha Warren-Yehuda 2015