Brahms Schumann Gade Sebastian Manz & Herbert Schuch

On his latest album, “Brahms Schumann Gade”, clarinet virtuoso and triple ECHO Klassik prizewinner Sebastian Manz addresses three absolute pillars of the clarinet repertoire. The artist’s focus on the core chamber repertoire clearly differentiates this album project from his previous CD recordings. Without diversions or programmatic frills, Sebastian Manz dedicates himself wholly on this album to the artistic content of these timeless masterworks.

The clarinet sonatas of Johannes Brahms are much loved by listeners and performers alike. The variety and depth of Brahms’s sonatas is here in the hands of a courageous exponent who in his descent through their complex compositional strata has struck musical gold. The consequence is a recording that is the very reverse of monotonous. Manz himself describes it as “a spontaneous, high-risk orgy of tone colours”.

Like the Brahms sonatas, the “fantasy pieces” by Robert Schumann are full of detail and thematic associations. It takes years of thorough preparation for such a work to grow to maturity within an artist. As a child, Sebastian Manz had difficulty finding a way into these pieces. But as time went by, at the latest while he was still a music student, his early reservations gave way to real enthusiasm. This recording shows Manz reaping the fruits of this maturing process. The Fantasiestücke Op. 43 by Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade show a clear link to Schumann’s; after all, the two composers knew each other personally.

Sebastian Manz is accompanied at the piano by ECHO prizewinner Herbert Schuch. The Romanian-born pianist, who now lives in Germany, is an enthusiastic chamber musician who also appears with the world’s best orchestras. This musical partnership thrives on far-reaching musical diversity, where both artists are ready to respond to the impulse of the moment and follow wherever artistic collaboration may lead. Together they will delight you with recordings that audibly leave time and space for spontaneous musical qualities. The thoughts and emotions of the two performers flow through purely and naturally. The music has time and space to open up and express itself, too, thanks to long, ambitious takes.

The decision to record the album in the wood-panelled Angelika Kaufmann Hall in Schwarzenberg, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria, was a quite deliberate one. Its intimate setting is home in particular to the Schubertiade, the world’s most important Schubert festival. The crystal-clear acoustics of its timeless wooden architecture in the midst of unspoilt nature offered the ideal ambience, convincing the artists “that we could make a recording that was capable of rendering the music in all its facets”. The Steinway D concert grand was a find. The “old lady”, as she is affectionately termed in Schwarzenberg, has been around for a century or so. The not so brilliant sound, with its sugar-sweet tone, is most characteristic of its time and gives an idea of the sound qualities Brahms worked with while he was composing.