Johannes Brahms: Viola Sonatas, Op. 120 - Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder, Op. 113

The two Sonatas Op. 120 are Johannes Brahms’ last chamber music works, written in the summer of 1894, three years before his death. After having heard the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld in concert, he dedicated to him this opus, and they performed the premiere together in November 1894, in front of an audience including Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim. Brahms himself transcribed the sonatas a few months later for the viola, an instrument whose range, fairly close to that of the clarinet, found in his ears an intimate sound adequate for these two romantic masterpieces.

PRD 250 177