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Complete works for viola - Vol. 2
Johannes Brahms

Complete works for viola - Vol. 2

Mikhail Zemtsov & friends

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917200270
barcode
Catalog number: CC 720027
Releasedate: 03-04-26
- Brahms rediscovered through the viola, volume 2 (!) - revealing a warmer, more unified and vocal sound world than the clarinet originals
- Unique focus on late masterpieces inspired by Richard Mühlfeld, among Brahms’s most profound and intimate works
- The viola as the human voice - especially in Zwei Gesänge Op. 91, where Brahms exploits the instrument’s deepest register from the very first bar
- What a star line up this album has with: pianist Hanna Shybayeva, cellist Timora Rosler, violinist Daniel Rowland, cellist Maja Bogdanovic, mezzo soprano Marion van den Akker, violinist Floor le Coultre  and pianist Victoria Dmitrieva
- A personal artistic statement by Mikhail Zemtsov, born from a lifelong belief in the special bond between Brahms’s music and the viola’s sonority
This second volume of Johannes Brahms: Complete Works for Viola continues Mikhail Zemtsov’s deeply personal exploration of Brahms’s late chamber masterpieces, heard through the warm, human voice of the viola. Centered on works originally inspired by clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, this album reimagines the Trio Op. 114, Quintet Op. 115, Zwei Gesänge Op. 91, and the Scherzo from the FAE Sonata from a new sonic perspective - one that reveals an intimate, unified string sonority and an expressive depth uniquely suited to the viola. Particularly striking is Brahms’s instinctive use of the viola’s lowest register, drawing the listener immediately into a world of introspection, tenderness, and inward poetry. 

More than a scholarly project, this recording is a heartfelt artistic statement, born from Zemtsov’s conviction that the viola holds a special affinity with Brahms’s musical language. By pairing the instrument with kindred voices - strings, piano, and the human voice - the album invites listeners to rediscover these iconic works as profoundly vocal, homogenous, and emotionally resonant creations. As the second chapter (volume 2) in a complete cycle commemorating Brahms’s legacy, this release offers not just an alternative version of familiar masterpieces, but a compelling re-illumination of their inner soul.