Reger: Complete Music for Clarinet and Piano

Bambace, Roberta, Conti, Claudio

95258

Just as Brahms had done, Max Reger wrote sonatas for either clarinet or viola, exploiting their mellow tone-colours and rich, inner-part voicing within autumnal Romantic textures. Indeed, it was hearing the two clarinet sonatas composed by Brahms for his friend Richard Mühlfeld that inspired Reger to take on the genre which was so suited to his highly wrought style. Though the two Op.49 sonatas follow the Brahmsian model closely, they are also highly distinctive in their pervasive handling of melody and the breadth of their phrasing. If the finale of No.1 shows the composer at his most scintillating – unlikely word for Reger – the second is the more ambitious of the pair, with relaxed outer movements which tend towards melancholy, enclosing Scherzo which glints with offbeat accents and ironic twists of expression, followed by a soulful Larghetto.

Works:
• Reger: Albumblatt in E flat major
• Reger: Sonata for Viola/Clarinet and Piano in A flat major, Op. 49 No. 1
• Reger: Sonata for Viola/Clarinet and Piano in B flat major, Op. 107
• Reger: Sonata for Viola/Clarinet and Piano in F sharp minor, Op. 49 No. 2
• Reger: Tarantella in G minor

CD x 1

Brilliant Classics

13.11.19

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