Simone Wolff, Lena Eckels, Sophie Harmsen - Friendship (2021)

The portrait of an artist friendship: Lena Eckels, former violist of the Amaryllis Quartet and now professor at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, takes an original look at the friendship between Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) and the world famous with her debut CD “Friendship” Violinist Joseph Joachim (1831–1907). The renowned mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen and Lena Eckels ’long-time chamber music partner, the pianist Simone Wolff, will also be there.

Brahms and Joachim were linked in friendship and esteem for more than 40 years. As young men in the 1950s they developed their talent for composition in close exchange and competition with one another, inspired each other, and later they dedicated individual works to one another. Joachim, who then concentrated on his career as a violinist, can be considered the discoverer of the young Brahms. As a soloist, program designer, leader of the legendary Joachim Quartet or director of the Royal University in Berlin, he promoted Brahms ’fame and fame. The album “Friendship” presents the Sonata in F minor Op. 120 No. 1, which Brahms originally published for clarinet and alternatively viola and probably performed privately with Joachim on viola, in a new context. The “spiritual lullaby” of the “Zwei Gesänge Op. 91 ”for alto, viola and piano was presented by Brahms to the Joachims for the birth of their first son Johannes. In 1855 Joachim dedicated his “Hebrew Melodies” for viola and piano to Brahms, who commented that they were “completely Joachim, wonderfully moving”.

The album was created in cooperation with the Brahms Institute at the Lübeck University of Music. Its head, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Sandberger, wrote the informative booklet text on the friendship of the two artists, who among others. based on a bundle of 900 letters by Joachim in the Brahms Institute.

Tracklist:

01. 2 Gesänge, Op. 91: No. 1, Gestillte Sehnsucht
02. 2 Gesänge, Op. 91: No. 2, Geistliches Wiegenlied
03. Hebräische Melodien, Op. 9: I. Sostenuto
04. Hebräische Melodien, Op. 9: II. Grave
05. Hebräische Melodien, Op. 9: III. Andante cantabile
06. Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1 (Version for Viola & Piano): I. Allegro appassionato
07. Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1 (Version for Viola & Piano): II. Andante un poco adagio
08. Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1 (Version for Viola & Piano): III. Allegretto grazioso
09. Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1 (Version for Viola & Piano): IV. Vivace