Sacha Rattle - Brahms Berg Lutos?Awski: Works For Clarinet & Pno [CD]

Clarinettist Sacha Rattle and pianist Peter Donohoe present Brahms's Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas, late masterpieces written in 1894 for Richard Muhlfeld, the player who inspired the final, radiantly autumnal phase of Brahms's career. Rattle pairs them with Berg's Four Pieces, Op. 5, which he hears as a spiritual successor to the sonatas, encompassing all the stories, heartache and whimsy in a succinct eight minutes, and Lutoslawski's Dance Preludes, with their clear and pungent flavour of Polish folkdance, mirroring the folky, dancing aspects of Brahms. Premiered in Warsaw in 1955, the Preludes made an immediate impression, speaking with an irrepressible voice.