Johannes Brahms: Secular Vocal Quartets with Piano Vol. 1

Johannes Brahms composed quartets for voices throughout his life and scored a special success with his Gypsy Songs. Why it is that these enthralling miniatures of folk character have enjoyed great popularity through to the present quickly becomes clear in this brand new recording with the Norddeutscher Figuralchor conducted by Jörg Straube: fiery rhythms, catchy melodies, and bittersweet harmonies tell a richly colored tale featuring artistic play with the nineteenth-century ideal of the wild and romantic gypsy life. Flirts and Skirts The fine touch of Markus Bellheim’s piano accompaniment contributes significantly to the Hungarian color: just listen to the cymbal sounds in “Mond verhüllt sein Angesicht”! And it is simply magnificent, how yearning and passion are set in “Hochgetürmte Rimaflut”! Brahms could draw on his great stores of choral experience: after all, during his youth he was also active as a choir director, first at the court of the Lippe princes and then later in Vienna. “Neckereien” from this period displays his compositional mastery: in the lavishly interlocked canon of the voices the cat-and-mouse game between boys and girls becomes most pleasurably audible to the ear. Rosebuds and Thistles In general, encounters between the sexes play a great role in the quartets. Brahms did not recoil from setting even suggestive texts, which earned him a rebuke from his female friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg. Here we are referring to “Rote Rosenknospen,” and when envious suitors appear as “Brennnesseln” in the very next song – well, erotic fantasy is free to fill in the details. Choral Palette Despite their popularity and supposed folk character, the quartets are very difficult to sing. Jörg Straube has perfectly prepared his Norddeutscher Figuralchor: from great pathos in “An die Heimat” to the high spirited “Röslein dreie in der Reihe,” the female and male vocalists draw on an enormous expressive palette offering listening pleasure with a special appeal in the best SACD technology.