Recently awarded the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society, Kent Nagano and the Hamburg State Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform the last two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert. The most personal of Johannes Brahms’s four symphonies, the Third is both heroic and deeply troubled with each movement ending …

Daniel Ottensamer presents Brahms’ two legendary clarinet sonatas, reworked for clarinet and orchestra by Stephan Koncz, who also conducts the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra on this recording. Koncz’s orchestrations bring these masterful pieces out of the limited space of chamber music, presenting them in a new symphonic light. The album is rounded out by a hidden gem, Walter Rabl’s clarinet …

On this EP of six tracks, brothers and pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen explore repertoire that was originally based on a sacred aria or chorale melody. CANTUS includes Anderson and Roe’s two-piano arrangement of “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Reinhard Febel’s four-hand arrangement of Bach’s setting of the chorale “Erbarm dich mein, o …

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective continues its series with this recording of Johannes Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet, alongside Piano Quartet No. 1 of Louise Héritte-Viardot. The Third Piano Quartet gestated for a long time – the first sketches were made in 1855, whilst the work was not completed until 1875. Numerous commentators tie the work to the composer’s infatuation with Clara Schumann, …

Polish conductor and pianist Krystian Zimerman is joined by violinist Maria Nowak (co-leader of his Polish Festival Orchestra), violist Katarzyna Budnik (principal viola of the Sinfonia Varsovia), and cellist Yuya Okamoto (newly appointed cellist of the Ébène Quartet) to perform two piano quartets by Johannes Brahms. In an interview with Presto Music, Zimerman is disarmingly honest about the foursome having …

Chicago audiences have had a chance to experience Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen’s artistry, with the countertenor having made debuts with the Newberry Consort, Music of the Baroque, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Uncharted ventures outside typical countertenor territory into 19th and 20th century lieder. Austro-Germanic lieder was the countertenor’s first musical love and on Uncharted, he indulges in music by Erich …

The new album from acclaimed pianist Orion Weiss features music by Brahms, Schubert, and Debussy paired with works from young composers after World War I and II: Ernst von Dohnányi, György Ligeti, and Louise Talma. As the final issue of his ambitious three-part Arc series, this album is a set of pieces born from the bright points of life, inspired …

The third solo album from Egyptian soprano Fatma Said focuses on Romantic era lieder by Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. In the conventional course of things, a lieder recital involves one singer and one pianist, but Said takes a characteristically imaginative approach with this album. “I’ve always wanted to make music with friends,” she …

Celebrated violinist James Ehnes picks up the viola for his first recording of the Op. 120 sonatas of Brahms in the composer’s arrangement for viola and piano. Originally written for clarinet, Brahms made subtle changes for the viola versions, enriching the meagre viola sonata repertoire with these two late masterpieces. Composed in just a few days in 1851, Robert Schumann’s …

French pianist Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the Gold Medal at the 2019 Tchaikovsky competition,  presents his fourth solo album for BIS, and his ninth album overall. The centerpiece work is Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, considered to be the most virtuosic composition in his entire output. Liszt transcriptions of five Schubert lieder include the song quoted in the Wanderer Fantasy, “Der Wanderer,” …

Longtime collaborators cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan present Brahms’s two Cello Sonatas, alongside their arrangement of his Violin Sonata in G Major on the cello. This Brahms portrait follows the duo’s recent acclaimed double album dedicated to Beethoven’s complete Cello Sonatas. While Beethoven’s sonatas reveal the gradual ascendancy of the cello as the proper solo instrument over the …

French cellist presents a double album tribute to Clara & Robert Schumann pairing Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto (with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Raphaël Merlin) with works and arrangements for cello and piano by both composers (with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger). La Marca says “With this album, I wanted to bring to life one of the most beautiful love stories in …

Lars Vogt, who died at age 51, founded the Spannungen festival for chamber music in Heimbach, NRW, Germany. Vogt gave his last concert there, playing Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 with Christian Tetzlaff, Barbara Buntrock and Tanja Tetzlaff in June 2022. Vogt had attempted to record the Piano Quartets No. 2 and 3, but only the No.2 was complete at …

In a delightful program of lullabies and gentle serenades, husband and wife duo cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel have gathered a collection of some of the most beloved melodies that touch, console, comfort, and soothe. These are at once a marvelous entry point to listening to music for the very young, and a treat for all music lovers. …