Brahms Berg & Zemlinsky

For it's second recording for Cypres, Kheops Ensemble immerses us in works that give pride of place to the clarinet, an instrument whose expressive possibilities fascinated the most original creators in the Habsburg capital at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Brahms's Trio op. 114, dominated by autumnal colors, is an end-of-life work, imbued with a form of renunciation and resignation. The Four Pieces op. 5, dedicated to the master Schönberg, exude a striking expressiveness, the kind of expressiveness that Berg has always managed to preserve in all his research. In his Trio op. 3, Zemlinsky, who makes no secret of his admiration for op. 114, develops an intense and tumultuous harmonic universe that marks the generational leap with Brahms. Kheops Ensemble, a variable-geometry group combining winds and strings under the sign of individual virtuosity at the service of the collective, radiates maturity and carries the colors of chamber music high in Belgium.