In these love songs in waltz style for chorus or solo voices accompanied by piano four hands, Brahms freely indulged his taste for Viennese folk music. The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin instills a wonderful inner life in these musical landscapes, sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy, punctuated here by a selection from the Hungarian Dances - also eminently popular in their inspiration.
This new release from pianist Barry Douglas is the sixth and final volume in his exploration of Brahms’s output for solo piano. BBC Music writes of this series, “Douglas’s tone is a deep velvet cushion, the legatos full of affection and the rhythms galvanized with great energy.” This unique collection of works shows Brahms not only as a composer, but also an arranger, pedagogue, historian, virtuoso, and pianist. Barry Douglas hails from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has won numerous awards all over the globe, including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and the gold medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
REVIEW:
Douglas’s hefty, full-bodied sound, built from the bottom up, befits the mellow power of Brahms’s sound world. In the dark E flat minor Op 118 Intermezzo, most pianists focus attention on the right-hand melody and treat the rumbling left-hand lines as muted filigree. Douglas, however, does almost the exact opposite, and the effect is revelatory.
Schumann & Bruch: Cello Concerto & Works for Cello and Orche
SWR
CD · 1 disc
$20.99Nov 13, 2026
Sebastian Klinger and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under Marzena Diakun bring together a compelling selection of Romantic works for cello and orchestra: Schumann's deeply expressive Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, alongside Max Bruch's lyrical pieces Kol Nidrei, Canzone, and Ave Maria. Schumann's concerto, born from a moment of creative exhilaration, unfolds with poetic intensity as it's movements flow seamlessly into one another, illuminated by the cello's warm, human voice. Bruch's works, by contrast, shine with heartfelt melody and emotional immediacy - music that speaks directly to the soul. Sebastian Klinger, one of the outstanding cellists of his generation, combines technical brilliance with a uniquely rich tonal palette. Together with the DRP, he brings Romanticism to life in it's most compelling form: intimate, passionate, timeless.
