Brahms - Clarinet Quintet [Meyer/Vienna String Sextet]
This is the first time that Brahms's Clarinet Quintet makes a show in my Blog, i prefer his Clarinet Sonatas actually, this must be one of his last works, and there's definitely an autumn glow in this work, usually it's coupled with Mozart's Quintet, or Brahms's Piano Quintet, so here's an interesting coupling in Yun's Clarinet Quintet, a nice disc, a bit short on length [51 minutes], but it's quality.
Sabine Meyer is German, born in 1959, now 52 years old, she made this recording back in 1990, the booklet front cover is excellent [by Franz Hamm], especially the picture of Meyer, a lovely autumnal portrait, full of oranges and browns, nice sunlight on the shoulder, and that glint and sparkle from the clarinet!, the small shot of the Wiener Striechsextett actually gets in the way, it would look even better if it was ditched.
The movement that excited me the most was the first, a lovely serenade almost, Brahms seems to have left behind his more darker and angrier days, he was enchanted by the Clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, and composed a number of works for him, it was in the summer of 1891 in Bad Ischl, a spa town in Austria that Brahms composed this work, you can feel the relaxation of the piece,
Here's David Shifrin playing the first movement on YouTube with the Guarneri Quartet.
