Marie-Claude Chappuis / Christian Chamorel / Quatuor Sine Nomine - "But the greatest of these is love..." Johannes Brahms: Vier Ernste Gesänge, op. 121, Lieder & Piano Pieces CD

“But the greatest of these i love…” – an extremely interesting Brahms album dealing with the “metaphysical” Johannes Brahms, interested in religiosity and transcendence, with the “Four Serious Songs” completed in 1896 as the pivotal point. When the mezzo-soprano Marie-Claude and the pianist Christian Chamorel began to work out the programme for joint concerts and ultimately for an album, they quickly realised that an approach via an interpretation guided primarily by the instrumental, as well as a combination of the most diverse instrumentations, would give the project a welcome personal touch. Just like the haunting transcription of the “Four Serious Songs” for string quartet by violinist and conductor Jean-Pierre Moeckli. And so here we experience a quasi “triple” Brahms: once in the combination of voice-vocal, then in the combination of voice and string quartet and once with selected solo works for piano.