The catalogue has rarely lacked fine couplings of Brahms’s two late clarinet sonatas. But take note that this new one also includes Berkes’s own arrangement of the Scherzo contributed by the 20-year-old Brahms to the “FAE Sonata” for violin and piano composed jointly with Schumann and his pupil, Dietrich, as a surprise for Joachim. Better still is the inclusion of the two rarely heard Op. 91 Songs for mezzo, piano and (originally) viola obbligato, inspired by more personal events in Brahms’s deep but chequered friendship with the great violinist. The informative booklet (especially in its English section) inexplicably omits the name of the warm-hearted singer (a fruity voice of surely operatic potential). Otherwise all praise to Naxos for yet another of their very generously priced super-bargains.
Only in the early Scherzo does Jando’s keyboard exuberance sometimes overpower the here not too tellingly placed voice of the clarinet. For the rest, these two responsive Hungarians play with a spontaneous give and take, conveying the composer’s autumnal nostalgia without loss of strength. Berkes finds a penetrating intensity for the bolder affirmations of the two sonatas as well as a haunting tonal beauty in the instrument’s brooding lower register. His sensitively nuanced, liquid phrasing helps no less to explain why the (almost) sexagenarian Brahms so totally fell under the instrument’s spell after discovering the Meiningen artist, Richard Muhlfeld. Some listeners may think tempo disproportionately slow for the trio of the Second Sonata’s Allegro appassionato. The players also take their time over the Andante con moto theme of the finale’s variations. But ensuing contrasts are rich, with an exhilarating homecoming. Warmly recommended.'