4 of 8 Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano Op.83 (1909)

Far from betraying the composer’s intentions, playing only a selection from Bruch’s Eight Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano actually conforms with them: he declared that he did not intend the whole score to be performed in any one concert. He wasn’t too precious about the instrumentation either since he issued alternative versions for clarinet, cello and piano and even for piano trio (violin, cello and piano) although the personality of the work was clearly influenced by that of the clarinet as he knew it – which is to say the essentially romantic instrument Brahms had promoted in his Clarinet Quintet and other late works for Richard Mühlfeld. The Eight Pieces were, in fact, written for the composer’s clarinettist son, Max Felix, whose performances of the work inspired comparison with Mühlfeld himself.     

The first piece in the present selection, a Nachtgesang or Nocturne in G minor, is a persuasive demonstration of the compatibility of clarinet and viola in such nostalgically melodious material as this. The piano, which for the most part occupies itself with an arpeggio accompaniment, has to wait until near the end before it is rewarded with a phrase from the main theme. In the rather more urgent Allegro con moto in B minor the viola leads the way and the clarinet follows while the piano provides the underlying rhythmic impulse. The leading roles in the first two sections of the next piece are shared between viola and clarinet – the former passionate in C sharp minor in the opening Andante con moto, the latter melodiously poised in A major as the tempo changes to Andante. The cello recalls its complaint but now in F sharp minor and it is only in the concluding Andante that clarinet and viola come to an understanding of the point of view of the other. The Allegro vivace is an entertaining scherzo in B major with the pianist at last on equal terms with her similarly vigorous companions.