Once there was a time when recordings of Schoenberg's orchestral arrangement of Brahms' G minor Piano Quartet were rare. But that time ended with the dawn of the digital age, and by the start of the twenty-first century, recordings of Schoenberg's wild and wooly arrangement have become almost commonplace. But coupling Schoenberg's arrangement with
Luciano Berio's sweetly soulful arrangement of the same composer's F minor Clarinet Sonata is the unique feature of this 2008 CPO recording with
Daniel Raiskin leading the
Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonic. In both works,
Raiskin combines the spirit of the composer and the arranger in musically and aesthetically unified accounts. His Brahms-Schoenberg is appropriately melancholy in the opening three movements and boisterously rambunctious in the closing Rondo alla Zingarese, while his Brahms-
Berio is deeply passionate in the outer movements and tenderly lyrical in the central movements. The real star of the Brahms-
Berio work is clarinetist
Steffens. As those who heard his lovely 2005 Schumann recital will recall,
Steffens has an opulent tone, an effortless technique and an affecting way of phrasing a melody, and those qualities serve him well in Brahms' autumnal masterpiece. CPO's digital sound is cool and clear, though the orchestra may be a bit recessed for some tastes.