Martin Frost Plays Brahms

Martin Frost Plays Brahms

• Kammermusik mit Klarinette

Johannes Brahmss Clarinet Quintet is core repertoire, not just for clarinettists but also in the entire chamber music genre. As such, it has been on Martin Frösts to-be-recorded list for a long time, and when he gathered a dream-team of string players for a concert in Stockholm in February 2013, it was the perfect opportunity for BIS to organize a recording session. Brahmss Quintet was written in 1891 by a composer who only a year previously had renounced composing, but whose creative urge had been reawakened by his encounter with the leading clarinettist of the time, Richard Mühlfeld. Some 120 years later, Fröst one of todays most highly regarded musicians and the recipient of the 2014 Sonning Prize steps into Mühlfelds shoes, in the company of Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Maxim Rysanov and Torleif Thedéen. As a complement to this substantial work with a duration of almost 35 minutes Martin Fröst has transcribed six much-loved songs by Brahms, performing them with his chamber music partner of long standing, the eminent pianist Roland Pöntinen. The songs, composed between 1866-1886, range from high lyricism (Die Mainacht) to bitter-sweet nostalgia (Wie Melodien), via the humourous Vergebliches Ständchen. To these new recordings has been added a substantial bonus Martin Frösts performance with Pöntinen and Thedéen of the Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, which Brahms composed for Mühlfeld in the same year as the quintet. Originally released in 2005, the recording of the Trio received a warm welcome, including an Editors Choice in Gramophone, as well as a Disc of the Month on website ClassicsToday.com.