To be given the Clarinet Trio as well as the two sonatas is generous measure in itself. So how good to be able to say that this disc is an even greater bargain in terms of quality. In fact I enjoyed it enough to want to lay down my critical pen altogether and just surrender to the music. Reminding us in his discerning insert-notes of the inspirational source of all three works (and, of course, the Clarinet Quintet as well) Malcolm MacDonald specifies the ''polish and almost feminine sensitivity'' as the qualities in the playing of Richard Muhlfeld (principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra) that the 58-year-old Brahms so much admired. And I think he would feel just the same about Michel Portal. His tone is as liquid as his playing is super-sensitive. Mikhail Rudy and Boris Pergamenschikow are ideally attuned partners for him: all three artists respond with an exceptionally loving intimacy to the music's glowing and often nostalgic lyricism.
There is no lack of strength, both tonal and rhythmic, when required. Yet these very finely balanced and scaled performances manage to banish all misconceptions of the composer as a brusque and burly academic. Instead, we're reminded of his acutely vulnerable heart, and just as important, of his ear for sonority per se—such as in the magically ethereal coda of the Trio's first movement, so aptly described by MacDonald as suggesting ''the passionless beauty of an Aeolian harp''. The recording is excellent.'