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Pianist Paul Rivinius appears again, this time with violist Christian Euler, on Brahms | Schumann Works for Viola and Piano, a CD featuring works from relatively late in each composer’s career (Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm MDG 903 2353-6 euler-viola.com/en/tontraeger/new-release-2025-brahms-schumann).
The central work on the disc is Schumann’s Märchenbilder Op.113 or Fairy Tale Pictures from 1851, a work that has no individual titles that might suggest the content of the four movements.
In 1890 Brahms decided to retire from composing, but the following year he met the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and was inspired to write four works for him: the Clarinet Trio Op.114, the Clarinet Quintet Op.115 and the two Clarinet Sonatas in F Minor Op.120 No.1 and E-flat Major Op.120 No.2. The latter are here in the composer’s own arrangements, which he apparently felt were “clumsy and unpleasant.” Changes to accommodate the viola were mostly octave transpositions, but here Euler has “decided to play the original clarinet version consistently and to fully exploit its large range.” It’s an interesting choice.
Johannes Brahms Sonatas op. 120 – Robert Schumann Märchenbilder op. 113