BRAHMS: Clarinet Quintet in B Minor; REGER: Clarinet Quintet – Valery Gorokholinsky, clarinet/ New Russian Quartet – Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory

BRAHMS: Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115; REGER: Clarinet Quintet in A Major, Op. 146 – Valery Gorokholinsky, clarinet/ The New Russian Quartet – Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory SMC CD 0112, 71:48 ****:

Ukrainian clarinetist Valery Gorokholinsky (b. 1960) has served as principal clarinetist for the Ministry of Culture Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky and for the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev, and so his credentials to serve as the Richard Muehlfeld-dedicatee of the 1891 Brahms Quintet–for this recording quite justify themselves. The warm tone and piercingly clear intonation from Gorokholinsky complement the equally luminous figures from the New Russian Quartet lend a striking affection to the sunset work of Brahms, in which sighing gestures merge with his natural polyphony to produce a swansong commensurate in mood with the late keyboard pieces.
The key to this elaborate chamber work of Brahms lies in the Finale of the last movement, which close inspection reveals has cast its influence backwards to virtually every previous movement. Brahms employs a kind of retrospective cyclicism to unify the work by having linked the first and last movement motifs together–in the manner of the Beethoven Fifth–and having the interior movements utilize varying motifs or episodes based especially on the variations with which the Quintet concludes. But for the casual listener it remains the autumnal tone of the work–its use of the clarinet’s deep chalumeau register–that consistently haunts us when the great performers–Kell, Glazer, Meyer, Leister, Wlach–play it with both restraint and fervor. The B Major Adagio presents its own beauties, ranging from a lullaby effect to waltz contours that incorporate colloquies of cello, viola, and clarinet. The recitativo B Minor section for clarinet Gorokholinsky carries well with tremolo accompaniment from the strings. The folkish D Major Andantino plays like another tribute to the Serenade in D, Op. 11 or even the Intermezzo from the C Minor Symphony–a kind of Romantic cassation or Mozartean outdoor music. Mozart certainly has been the creative model for this Brahms Quintet; and so, like that Viennese master, Brahms concludes with a stylized set of variants. The coda of the first movement here aligns itself with the Finale to round out a sense of aesthetic closure, an ouroboros of sorts. We note the equally lovely tone from cellist Alexey Steblev, though to distinguish him over the other New Russian Quartet members seems superfluous.
The Clarinet Quintet in A, Op. 146 (1915) is the last of Max Reger’s published works. It proves no accident that Reger’s position at Meiningen–the same venue that had hosted clarinet virtuoso Richard Muehlfeld–linked him immediately to the Brahms Quintet and thus back to Mozart. The interlocking relationships become fixed by constant allusions from Reger on the tempo and metric signatures, each a quick reference to a prior work from either Brahms or Mozart. There always infiltrates into Reger’s work an “academic” propensity, and the Clarinet Quintet conforms to this sensibility, although the melody that arises out of the counterpoints in the first movement Moderato ed Amabile provides a pastoral mood. Generally, the dark hues of the first movement shift in hazy motions–the violin and the clarinet sharing themes to avoid a “concertino” effect–that reappear in the third movement Largo. A jerky Vivace ensues in tricky meters, with a G Major laendler-like tune that again suggests bucolic associations. The da capo brings back the nervous material over plucked strings, impish in rather naïve conceits. The emotional center of the piece, the E Major Largo moves in triple time, a hybrid meditation and subdued dance, the former of which might be construed as influenced by Faure. The middle section becomes more intense–allowing us to savor Gorokholinsky’s juicy tone–then retreats into the maze of demure gloom between violin and clarinet which Reger relishes. Following Mozart and Brahms, Reger gives us a theme and eight variations as a finale. The texture assumes more symphonic proportions in a mood genial, modal, and opulently scored for the clarinet solo. But whether the music entirely escapes the “Brahms clone” epithet remains a matter of critical and aesthetic debate.
— Gary Lemco