Zach Top Brahms: Complete Chamber Music (Live)

The project to record the complete chamber music works of Brahms arose quite naturally from working on and discussing his music. A veritable journey ensued which was necessary and almost compulsory for any avid chamber musician. This is because Brahms’s extremely flowery and prolific work so glorified the musical language of that era, from the duet to the sextet. It was at the crossroads of clical rigour and romantic impulse. Pierre Fouchenneret, Lise Berthaud, François Salque and Éric Le Sage invited their closest friends and partners to join this project which some deemed unachievable at the time. This was to play and record in concert all Brahms’s chamber music with the same group of musicians, using the network of La Belle Saison’s auditoria with their ideally suited acoustics. All these artists are soloists, quartet members, chamber musicians and also work in orchestras. They are enthused by the same keenness for the music of Brahms, who so loved and provided for chamber music formations, writing for them his entire life, always striving to compliment the instrument. Furthermore, they all have their heart set on recording complete works, as was the case with the four musicians who initiated the project for Ravel, Fauré, Poulenc, Beethoven and Schumann. Each separate concert was recorded by the crew of B Records working towards making this ambitious complete set which you are now holding in your hands.