Olari Elts & Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestr - Glanert: 4 Praludien und Ernste Gesange & Weites Land - Brahms: Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (2017) CD Rip

This Ondine recording includes a fascinating programme: Luciano Berio’s (1925–2003) iconic adaptation of Johannes Brahms’ (1833–1897) Clarinet Sonata No. 1 combined with Detlev Glanert’s (b.1960) recent arrangement of Brahms’ late vocal masterpiece, Four Serious Songs. Also included is Glanert’s new orchestral work Weites Land (2013) written in the spirit of Brahms. This disc includes as its soloists award-winning clarinetist Kari Kriikku and German baritone Michael Nagy. This is the second Ondine release of Estonian conductor Olari Elts together with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Detlev Glanert (b. 1960) was, like Brahms, born in Hamburg. A pupil of Diether de la Motte and Hans Werner Henze, Glanert has long felt a deep connection with Brahms’ music through “a specific North German tradition, in which I believe myself to be connected with Brahms, to do with a melancholy in his pieces, with a certain severity.” Melancholy and severity dominate the Four Serious Songs (1896), Brahms’ final set. Glanert’s Four Preludes and Serious Songs (the orchestrated Songs may be performed separately) were created in 2004 and they were premiered complete in the Marienkirche in Prenzlau on June 25th 2005 by the baritone Dietrich Henschel and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Kent Nagano. Glanert’s Weites Land was written in 2013. It is not a transcription but a fully independent, original work written, as it were, with Brahms’ Fourth Symphony firmly in view: the thematic and harmonic material originates from the first eight notes of the symphony and is developed through a single movement running to nearly twelve minutes.

Luciano Berio (1925–2003) was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1986 to provide an orchestral version of the first of the two late sonatas Brahms composed in 1894, two years prior to the Serious Songs. Berio created a 25-minute concerto, although retaining the designation ‘Sonata’. Berio’s treatment of Brahms’ was highly respectful and straightforward and the solo part is almost identical with the original sonata.