The Joys of Playing a Brahms Quintet with a Solid Viola Solo
This showpiece for the viola is like a visit from an old and trusted friend
I have loved Brahms for most of my life, and certainly since I went to college at London’s Guildhall School of Music at the tender age of 16. I was a violinist then, and there was plenty of Brahms to get my teeth into.
For the last 20 years, I have been primarily a violist. For many years, I could satisfy my love for Brahms with his wonderful output of chamber music: the string quartets, quintets, and sextets, and, of course, the two sonatas originally written for clarinet. Lately, though, my attention has been drawn to the other clarinet works that Brahms arranged for the viola: the clarinet trio and quintet. The trio is played fairly frequently in the viola version, and offers the violist many challenges and rewards.
The quintet, however, is rarely done with a solo viola replacing the clarinet.
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