BRAHMS J. STRING SEXTETS Nos.1,2 / Pražák Quartet (SACD hybrid)

1.-4. Johannes Brahms (1841-1904) - String Sextet No.1 in B flat major Op.18 33:46

5.-8. Johannes Brahms - String Sextet No.2 in Gamajor Op.36 38:59

Pražák Quartet

and Zemlinsky Quartet members Petr Holman viola, Vladimir Fortin cello

Brahms imposed the sextet form, with the sweetness and variety of colours of both summer and autumn, as well as the power and brilliance of a string orchestra, owing to the importance of the low registers. Mendelssohn had revealed its possibilities of luminous, dreamy summer fetes, Brahms the intensity of loves (The Lovers) then the innate nostalgia of the voices of violas and cellos, which allow for remaining under the spell of autumn activities and colours. Reger and Schönberg would be his sole heirs.

(Praga Digitals)