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Complete works for viola - Vol. 1
Johannes Brahms

Complete works for viola - Vol. 1

Mikhail Zemtsov & friends

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917200195
barcode
Catalog number: CC 720019
Releasedate: 05-09-25
- First volume of a complete survey of Brahms' music with viola
- It includes the (clarinet) Sonatas op.120 anf the (horn) Trio op.40.
- There is a special connection between Brahms’s musical world and the sonority of the viola. 
- Acclaimed and experienced violist Mikhail Zemtsov can count on the collaboration of two distinguished soloists as Hanna Shybayeva (piano) and Daniel Rowland (violin)
- A version of Brahms' chamber music masterpieces infused with Russian ardour and drive.
This CD is a part of a project which consists of recording all the chamber music pieces with soloistic instrumental parts for which Brahms has made viola versions. This first CD includes a Horn trio (Op. 40) and two Clarinet Sonatas (Op. 121). The 2nd CD (which will be released in 2026) features the Clarinet trio (Op. 114), Clarinet Quintet (Op. 115), Two Songs (Op. 91) and the Scherzo from FAE Sonata.
It is quite a common opinion that the last works of Brahms inspired by the meeting with clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld belong to Brahms’s deepest, most beautiful and impressive works. What was the reason for Brahms to write viola parts for these pieces? Probably, a feeling that the expressive richness of the viola would make it possible to discover these pieces from a completely different perspective: there is a special connection between Brahms’s musical world and the sonority of the viola.