Johannes Brahms: Vokalquartette op.64 auf CD

Product-Information:

This charming disc presents a comprehensive selection of Brahms’s secular choral music. Through his professional activities, Brahms had a continuous interest in producing music for choirs, as well as profound insight into their capabilities. His impressive output of a cappella sacred choruses and motets makes learned and creative reference to such Baroque masters as Gabrieli, Schütz and Bach. Yet Brahms was equally adept in the traditions of the unaccompanied Romantic choral song, the Chorlied, following the lead of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann, and adapting the form to his own characteristic ends. He also wrote a large number of vocal duets and quartets with piano accompaniment, including the popular Zigeunerlieder, which are testimony to his extraordinary fascination for gypsy music and its fertilizing effect on his style.

Selections from these secular forms are performed by the professional chamber choir Consortium, conducted by Andrew-John Smith, who will be familiar to Hyperion listeners from his acclaimed recording of Saint-Säens’ organ works.

Rezensionen

'Sung with sympathy and ardour by this excellent chamber choir, with apt accompaniments by Christopher Glynn' (Gramophone)

'There is little doubt that this is high-class choral singing: refined, sweet-toned, impeccably tuned, with subtly nuanced dynamics … The performances are consistently of the highest quality and when Brahms is at his reflective and melancholy best, so are Consortium' (MusicalCriticism. com)

'Elegant, refined music-making' (Audiophile Audition, USA)

'A professional ensemble that seems to be eking out a niche for itself… Consortium makes some very beautiful sounds' (Fanfare, USA)

Rezensionen

FonoForum 09/09: "Den Klavierpart hat Christopher Glynn übernommen, der auf einem Bösendorfer-Flügel von 1872 eine farbige Begleitung liefert.​ Das Brodeln im ersten der "Zigeunerlieder" kommt auf diesem Instrument wunderbar zum Ausdruck.​ Überhaupt verstärkt der Flügel den jeweiligen Charakter der Lieder auf nachhaltige Weise.​ So wird, durch das eher langsame Grundtempo noch verstärkt, die "Heimat" aus op.​ 64 zu einer Art Klage, voller Sehnsucht und Melancholie zugleich.​ So interpretiert, erscheint der Übergang zum "Abend" fast wie eine zyklische Notwendigkeit, gefolgt vom scharfen Kontrast der "Fragen".​ Auch die raschen Stimmungsumschwünge in den "Zigeunerliedern" gelingen dem Chor überzeugend.​"