Max Bruch - 8 Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83 (1910) {Duchâble}

Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, teacher, and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire. Please support my channel: 8 Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83 (1910) Dedication: Prinzessin Sophie zu Wied 1. Andante (0:00) 2. Allegro con moto (4:06) 3. Andante con moto (6:32) 4. Allegro agitato (14:20) 5. Rumänische Melodie: Andante (17:37) 6. Nachtgesang: Andante con moto (23:00) 7. Allegro vivace, ma non troppo (19:14) 8. Moderato (32:28) Paul Meyer, clarinet Gérard Caussé, viola François-René Duchâble, piano Max Bruch is known today mainly for his First Violin Concerto, one of the great works for solo violin and orchestra; The Scottish Fantasy, also for solo violin and orchestra, and Kol Nidre, a treatment for cello and piano of the traditional Jewish Yom Kippur prayer. During his lifetime, however, he was an internationally recognized composer whose output included three operas, three symphonies, two other violin concertos, a piano trio, two string quartets and, most played of all, a series of secular and sacred choral works. Late in his career, Bruch wrote two works for his son Max Felix, a theory teacher at the Hamburg Conservatory and a skillful clarinetist – Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 83, and the Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra, Op. 88. He liked the mellow quality of the alto register, so in each work he combined the clarinet with the viola. The concerto is all but unknown, but the Eight Pieces are now having a revival – the Schwann catalog lists nine current recordings. In these pieces, Bruch followed Mozart’s lead in his Trio, K. 498, in combining the clarinet with the viola. To enhance the work’s commercial appeal, however, he published alternative versions for violin, viola and piano and for clarinet, cello and piano. The Eight Pieces favor rich, mellow instrumental hues and an autumnal maturity of expression, deeply felt but purged of excess. The clarinet and viola are evenly matched, singing together in duet or conversing in dialogue, while the piano serves as an accompaniment. Bruch intended that the Eight Pieces be regarded as a set of independent miniatures of various styles rather than as an integrated cycle, and advised against playing all of them together in concert. As a result, Simrock published each piece separately so that players could mix and match. But they were also published together in sets of four and later yet altogether. The Eight Pieces represented a return to chamber music for Bruch, who had composed no chamber works during the preceding 42 years. However, the pieces are not “trios” in the usual sense of three instruments of equal importance. The clarinet and the cello share the spotlight, with the figurations calculated to serve the requirements and tonal characteristics of each instrument. The piano, in contrast, performs largely in accompaniment, sometimes assuming orchestral characteristics like tremolo. Further, the pieces are all “character pieces,” a 19th century Romantic term to denote music intended to portray a particular mood rather than to fit the more elaborate sonata or variation forms inherited from Haydn and Mozart. All but one are in a minor key.