The notes shown here are edited from the 30+ page booklet included with the CD which is stereo in SACD and Multichannel SACD

MAX BRUCH – 8 Pieces, Op.83
Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine province, and received his early training from his mother. Aged just 14, he wrote a symphony and a string quartet, the latter work bringing him a scholarship from the Frankfurt-based Mozart foundation, which enabled him to study with Ferdinand Breunung, Ferdinand Hiller, and Carl Reinecke. In 1858, having embarked on a teaching career in Cologne, he produced his first opera. He visited several important German cultural centres between 1861 and 1862. He had a long career as a teacher, conductor and composer, moving among musical posts in Germany:   Mannheim (1862-1864), Koblenz (1865-1867), Sondershausen, (1867-1870) Berlin (1870-1872), Bonn, where he spent 1873 -1878 working privately.

When Bruch died in late 1920, three months before his 83rd birthday, we were at a time when Stravinsky was already very famous, Schoenberg was immersed in dodecaphony, Bartók had his first two string quartets behind him, and microtonal music was well enough established that in some places it was being viewed as the next big thing. Bruch obviously did not relate to any of this. As a composer he was always a conservative, in the style of Brahms.
The 8 Pieces, Op.83 are very important in the output of Bruch for two principal reasons:-

1. it represented a successful return to chamber music, many years after his previous second string quartet, and was to be first of several interesting chamber works.
2. with this very work he entered into the last phase of his life. From April 1911 he retired from his official duties at aged 73.

JOHANNES BRAHMS – Trio Op. 114
The Brahms trio Op.114 is one of the principal works of chamber music repertory. The mature creations of Brahms go, in many cases, hand in hand with the extraordinary careers of four great musicians of the period; the clarinettist Richard Mühfeld, the violinist Joseph Joachim, the cellist Robert Hausmann, and the conductor Hans von Bulow. In 1869 Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) founded his string quartet, which quickly became famous. He was the dedicatee of the first violin concerto of Bruch, as well as various works Johannes Brahms, amongst which mention should be made of the Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77 from 1878, and the Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102, for violin and cello of 1887. It is in this renowned quartet that the cellist Robert Hausmann (1852-1909) played; he was in this era a professor, like Joachim, in the Royal Academy of Music of Berlin.

Bülow offers his orchestra to Brahms to rehearse his new works. Fritz Steinbach, the successor of Hans von Bülow in the orchestra, presented to Brahms the clarinettist of the orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld, in March of 1891. This very month Brahms writes to Clara Schumann “it is impossible to play better the clarinet than the way that Mr. Mühlfeld does”. Brahms, who had decided to abandon composition around 1890, and who, without any doubt, had heard the finest European clarinettists in his journeys, became spurred on by the artistry of Mühlfeld, and called him in an affectionate way  “Fräulein Klarinette” and “Meine Primadonna”.

In the summer of this same year – 1891 – Brahms was to compose his Trio Op.114 and his Quintet Op.115 in Bad Ischl, and both with Mühlfeld as dedicatee. In July he writes again to Clara Schumann:  “he is the finest performer of wind instruments that I know”. The Trio was published in 1892 by his friend, the editor Fritz Simrock, in Berlin.

Chamber music is the field where our composer finds himself in the intimate essence most authentically.  It is here where he develops with absolute logical rigour the most dynamic formal principals of classical style: the thematic-motive elaboration which, however, provokes the breaking up of another fundamental aspect of classicism – the regular order of musical time based upon the balance or ‘reconciliation’ of a phrase. In essence, now it was not about the alternating correspondence of phrases, but based on the varied development of small nucleases of motifs. Therefore all four movements display a high grade of elaboration.

The Non Profit Music Foundation

The Non Profit Music Foundation is born as an answer to the presence of classical music today in the world, the gradual decrease of pupils at the highest levels in music schools, the lack of motivation from the audience to assist to performances of classical music (chamber music can be an example) and the loss of sensibility towards social and humanitarian action. The Non Profit Music Foundation believes that is possible to create initiatives that help to solve these deficiencies in our society and, even, that these initiatives can work in a combined way. The activities of the Non Profit Music Foundation then, will be directed towards strengthening and divulging music culture and, at the same time, sensitizing people to solidarity and obtain funds for social and humanitarian actions. The Non Profit Music Foundation maintains too a recording activity in order to divulge contemporary music, helping new creators  to be better known and seeking the awareness of humanitarian causes. The record label gives all the profits made by the sell of its publications to Non Government Organizations that select the creators, in a transparent way due all the accounts are audited by the same NGOs. If you are interested in the biographic details and projects of B3 Classic, the Non Profit Music Orchestra or the Non Profit Music Foundation, you can visit: www.b3classic.com  and www.nonprofitmusic.org

Credits

Produced by: Non Profit Music
Project Director: Jorge Grundman
Musical Producer and Sound Engineer: Javier Monteverde
Production Assistant: Nicolás Domínguez
Edited, mixed and mastering: Cezanne Producciones, Javier Monteverde
SACD Mastering: Javier Monteverde
Recorded at Cezanne Producciones in May 2009
Graphic Design:  Valentín Iglesias
Cover Illustration: Iván Simón
Original Photos: Sergio Cabanillas
Translations: Laura Dudley

The Musicians

Clarinet: Joan Borrás
Cello: David Johnstone
Piano: Joanjo Albinyana

Further Information

www.nonprofitmusic.org
www.b3classic.com