Brahms: Sonatas Op 120 review – A redefined approach to music

Johannes Brahms was only 50 when, in December 1890, he told his publisher Fritz Simrock that it was "time to stop". The following May he wrote his will. His notions of retiring went famously by the board as a result of the creative engagement sparked by hearing the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld in 1891. Brahms nicknamed this exceptional player "Miss Clarinet" and "my prima donna".

Mühlfeld would inspire the late quintet, trio and a pair of sonatas. The sonatas were published for either clarinet or viola and piano, and these new performances cast the viola versions in an entirely fresh light. The ever-pliant Antoine Tamestit plays a Stradivarius viola and Cédric Tiberghien an 1899 Bechstein piano, a pairing which the players say caused them to redefine their approach to the music.

The piano sounds both rounder and lighter than today’s instruments and the often silvery viola can assert its presence against it without strain. In terms of instrumental colour and balance, I’ve never heard these heart-stopping works played with such individuality and intimacy.

Baritone Matthias Goerne is the sympathetic voice in the Op 91 songs with viola; the other two are heard in arrangements for viola and piano.