Jenner, R. Schumann & Weber: Works for Clarinet and Piano

The name of Johannes Brahms does not appear on the program of this album, yet he forms the connective thread linking all four composers represented here. Most directly, Gustav Jenner was Brahms’s only formal pupil, studying with him for seven formative years. Less well known today, Jenner nonetheless absorbed Brahms’s structural rigor and warmth of expression, qualities that permeate his Clarinet Sonata in G major, published in 1900 and dedicated to Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinetist who famously inspired Brahms’s late masterpieces.

Jenner’s sonata makes full use of the clarinet’s mellifluous character, balancing lyricism with rhythmic vitality and granting the piano an equal, often singing role. The shadow of Brahms is present, but so too is Jenner’s individual voice, particularly in the work’s restless emotional contrasts and surprising formal turns.

Robert Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 94, originally written for oboe and piano, acquire a darker, rounder hue when transferred to the clarinet. Composed as a Christmas gift for Clara in 1849, these pieces are songs without words, deceptively simple on the page yet demanding the highest expressive refinement. Their moments of introspection and sudden turbulence are among Schumann’s most intimate utterances.

Clara Schumann’s own Three Romances, here heard in an arrangement for clarinet and piano, reveal her instinctive sense of rubato and instrumental balance. Finally, Carl Maria von Weber’s Grand Duo Concertant stands as a brilliant showcase for both instruments, conceived to display virtuosity, dramatic contrast and operatic flair in equal measure.

Performed by clarinetist Jean Johnson and pianist Steven Osborne, this program traces a richly interconnected lineage of Romantic expression, where lyricism, intimacy and brilliance coexist in perfect balance.

Jean Johnson, Clarinet
Steven Osborne, Piano