Pianist András Schiff and clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann meet on record for the first time in the two clarinet sonatas op. 120 by Johannes Brahms, written in 1894 and among his last chamber works. Between the sonatas Schiff plays the first recording of Widmann's five Intermezzi for piano, composed in 2010 and dedicated to him. The pairing turns a familiar programme into a conversation across more than a century, with Brahms's late piano music as the hinge.
The two had played the sonatas together in concert for years before this recording, made in May 2018 at the Historischer Reitstadel in Neumarkt. Manfred Eicher produced it, with Stephan Schellmann as engineer. The booklet carries texts by Erich Singer and by Widmann, who explains that the Intermezzi grew from his friendship with Schiff and from a shared love of Brahms. The cover photograph is by Jan Jedlička.
The disc opens with the Sonata in E-flat major, op. 120/2, whose first movement, Allegro amabile, lets the clarinet speak with unusual freedom. Brahms wrote both works for Richard Mühlfeld, the leading clarinettist of his day, and Schiff treats the piano part as an equal voice. Widmann's Intermezzi follow, arranged around a long central piece marked Mit dunkler Glut, nearly twelve minutes against the brief outer pieces. The fourth is a Wiegenlied that recalls the lullaby opening of Brahms's op. 117. The Sonata in F minor, op. 120/1, closes the album with its Allegro appassionato, a slow Andante un poco Adagio, and a Vivace finale.
In BBC Music Magazine, Michael Church concluded: "No farewell to chamber music could be more eloquent." Max Christie of The WholeNote heard the duo's long partnership as "like listening in on a conversation between brilliant friends". In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Martin Wilkening wrote that the recording would stand out among the many versions even without its unusual addition. Writing about the Intermezzi in Le Monde, Pierre Gervasoni felt that on every page Schiff seemed to be improvising freely on a Brahmsian model.
This is the CD edition, ECM New Series 2621, released on 2 October 2020, with liner notes in German and English.
