Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano

Matthew Lipman, viola

Tamar Sanikidze, piano

Brahms’ close circle of musician friends included the famous conductor/ pianist Hans Von Bülow as well as the well-known composers Clara and Robert Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Joachim was instrumental in introducing Brahms to the Schumanns.  

Brahms composed several works for Joachim, including the Two Songs, Opus 91, for voice, viola, and piano (1884). Joachim was married to Amelie Weiss, a noted singer. When they were expecting their first child, Brahms wrote in a letter: “In due course I shall send you a wonderful old Catholic song for singing at home; you will never discover a more beautiful lullaby.” The song to which he was referring was an old Christmas carol that he set so that the three of them could perform it together to celebrate the birth of the Joachims’ son, named Johannes in honor of Brahms. Brahms felt it was such a personal gift that he did not then have it published.  

Twenty years later, the couple had marital problems: Joachim suspected his wife of having an affair with Fritz Simrock, Brahms’ music publisher. Brahms could not accept Joachim’s accusations of his wife and wrote a letter to Amelie declaring his belief in her fidelity; unfortunately for Brahms, Amelie used the letter to try to prevent the divorce, and Brahms was forced to testify in court. His friend Joachim understandably felt betrayed.  

In an act aimed at reconciliation, Brahms decided to compose another song to complement the original one that the three used to perform together, hoping this gesture would bring about renewed friendship. It did not result in peace between them, although Amelie later sang the Two Songs, as Brahms had joined them together under one opus number when he finally allowed them to be published, but she never performed them with Joachim. Brahms reversed the order of the songs so that the opus begins with the newly written song and ends with the earlier composed lullaby; he added a viola part to both, giving viola, piano, and voice all equal parts in these creations. The songs have been called his “chamber-music songs” because of the added instrument. Viola was one of Brahms’ favorite instruments and was, with its low timbre, a good complement to the alto voice. Sadly, Brahms and Joachim continued to be estranged for many more years, but eventually they did become friends again when Brahms composed his Double Concerto with Joachim in mind.  

“Gestillte Sehnsucht” sets a poem by Rückert, whose poetry Mahler also chose very frequently. This poem was the first Rückert poem Brahms chose to set to music, but he set several more texts by Rückert after this one. The poet’s daughter was eager for him to use her father’s poems for his music, and when he completed this song, Brahms asked his publisher to send it to her.  

“Gestillte Wegenlied” is a song that reflects a sense of longing and uneasiness although Brahms gives it natural beauty, as its setting is in a woodland setting in the evening. The viola introduces the main theme at the beginning; later, each time the words “lispeln die Wind” or “the whispering of the wind” occurs, the words imitate the sound of the wind in the woods as the sun goes down. The song of the birds is carried on the slight wind as the breeze lulls the world to sleep. The center of the song has more agitation although the close becomes soft as it reflects the Romantic fixation with the theme of death: “When I strive no longer, then may my life end.” 

The “wonderful old Catholic song” is a 14th-century carol, “Resonet in laudibus,” also known in a folksong version in German as “Joseph, lieber Joseph mein” (“Joseph dearest, Joseph mine”). In this cradle song, the Virgin Mary watches Jesus as palms overhead sway in the wind. She asks the angels who command the winds to quiet them so her baby can rest. Mary knows that pain will come to Jesus; she understands the Christ child bears the grief of the world, and Brahms allows the song to reflect this sensibility with its modulation into a minor tonality.  

At the song’s beginning, the viola carries the carol’s theme. (Brahms even included the words in the viola part so that the violist would be prompted to give the feeling of the text to his performance). Brahms directed that the lullaby be “sweetly expressive.” The viola continually returns to soothe, and it brings the lullaby to its peaceful ending.

                                                                                                             © Susan Halpern, 2025

On his fifty-eighth birthday, in 1891, Brahms drew up his will. He felt old and that his creative powers were leaving him. He believed that he would compose no more music and that it was time to prepare for the end of his life. Just two months later, he quickly completed a new big work, his Clarinet Trio, which he sent to a friend with a note saying that it had a twin, “an even greater folly,” the Clarinet Quintet. In 1894, he wrote his last two pieces of instrumental chamber music, the pair of Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120. Because there were many more professional violists in the world than clarinetists at that time, all four of these works were published with alternative viola parts that could replace the clarinet parts. For a variety of musical reasons, only the Sonatas are equally satisfactory with either instrument; in fact, they work so well with the viola that many viola players believe that he must have had their instrument in the back of his mind when he wrote them. 
 
The clarinet had never had an important place in Brahms’ work before this final burst of inspiration, which was the result of his admiration for Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907), a clarinetist whom he met for the first time in 1891. Brahms was a very severe judge of music and musicians, and his unequivocal praise of Mühlfeld as an artist and virtuoso is extraordinary. If the two had not met when they did, perhaps someone or something else would have caught his interest and sparked the fire of invention in him again, but posterity is grateful to Mühlfeld, whom the composer called “my nightingale” and “my prima donna,” for these last, glorious works. 
 
Brahms was also a habitual belittler of his own new works and suggested to Clara Schumann, a great musician and his close friend, a musical parallel of the theory that a monkey toying with a typewriter might actually write out the complete works of Shakespeare: “If you would just improvise a little in F minor and then in E-flat major,” he wrote, “you would probably come up with my two sonatas.”  
 
Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 was the second sonata in one year he composed for Mühlfeld. This sonata, like the one that preceded it, is a work of much mellow richness and warmth and is often played on the viola. The knowledge that this sonata was the very last work of chamber music that Brahms composed has put it in the category of a valedictory work. Even though composed near the end of his life, both of his last sonatas embody the same energy that one finds also present in the chamber music of his youth. Each sonata is unified by shared motives that are sometimes little more than characteristic turns of phrase, and some of these motives interpenetrate both Brahms’ clarinet/viola sonatas, showing how intimately paired they were in conception. 

Sonata No. 2 is somewhat more compact than Sonata No. 1, and has only three movements, not four. The first movement, Allegro amabile, is taut in structure and terse in expression, yet it lyrically expresses calm and serene feelings. In the first theme, the viola is heard in its full range, articulating the melodic line with much intensity. The second movement, Allegro appassionato, is scherzo-like, lyrical, and without the sense of drive so many scherzo movements have. It contains a contrasting central trio section in the major key. The finale, Andante con moto, includes a set of variations on a charming subject. The music rises to a climax in the fifth variation and is less formal than is usual in the final section; subsequently, it briefly becomes calm, and then goes on to a brilliant close in a major key. 

Brahms completed the two Op. 120 sonatas in the fashionable Austrian resort town of Ischl during the summer of 1894. On September 23, 1894, Mühlfeld and Brahms played both the Brahms’ sonatas for an invited audience at the home of a friend. The occasion was supposed to have been a private reading, but it attracted so much attention that it was even reviewed in a musical magazine published in far-off Berlin. In November, Brahms and Mühlfeld gave the official first public performances of the sonatas, which took place in the course of two special chamber music evenings presented by the Rosé Quartet, in Vienna’s Bösendorfer Hall: this sonata was performed on January 11, 1895.  After one more public performance, Brahms declared himself satisfied with both works and sent them to his publisher. 

                                                                                                                                                      © Susan Halpern, 2025

Clara was the daughter of Friedrich Wieck (1785-1873), a piano teacher, and Marianne (1797-1872), a soprano and a student of Wieck. Clara, who was groomed to be a prodigy, first appeared in public when she was nine, and held her first complete piano recital at age eleven, following that by an extended tour a year later. She performed extensively and studied piano, voice, violin, instrumentation, score reading, counterpoint, and composition; she also wrote and published several pieces for solo piano.     

Robert Schumann, who came to live and study with her father in 1830, asked for Clara’s hand in marriage in 1837. Wieck refused, but finally a day before Clara’s twenty-first birthday and only after the young couple filed and won a lawsuit, they were married. Initially, they remained in Leipzig where they both taught in the Conservatory; later, they moved to Dresden in 1844, and then to Düsseldorf in 1853. In Düsseldorf they finally had enough room for Clara to be able to practice and compose comfortably without disturbing her by then very nervous husband.   

Clara enjoyed writing songs as presents she would give to Robert. She presented him “Ihr Bildnis” (“Her likeness”) at their first Christmas together in 1840. Later, she heavily reworked the lied for the published edition of the Sechs Liedern, Op. 13 (Six Songs). 

For his June 8 birthday in 1842, Schumann received the song “Liebeszauber” (“Love’s magic”), and a year later, Clara gave him three songs. One was the Rückert song “Ich hab’ in deinem Auge” (“I saw in your eyes”) and another was “Sie liebten sich beide” ("They loved each other").  

Schumann decided that he wanted Clara to publish her songs in an independent collection, which included four of the previous Christmas and birthday presents, as well as two songs composed in July 1842. The 1842 songs were two texts of Emanuel Geibel, “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” (“The moon rises in silence”), and “Die stille Lotosblume” (“The quiet lotus blossom”). They were probably composed specifically for publication in this collection. Most likely, Robert arranged the songs for their 1844 publication, which Clara dedicated to Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark. The two women had become acquainted when Clara made a concert tour to Denmark in 1842 and was most hospitably received by the Danish queen. 

Clara was very modest about her songs, but she was a perfectionist about working on them if they were to be published. She forced her publisher to let them go through many proofs until she was content with the final product. As a result, they were much admired by those who sang them in concerts, who were the leading male and female singers of the time.  

The songs of Op. 13, although quiet and relatively unadorned, are nevertheless simple, clear, and unpretentious; they are tender and gracious, with their sentiments warmly and sincerely expressed.  

Clara composed the first song of the six lieder, “Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen” (“I stood in dark dreams”) for Christmas 1840. There are actually two versions of this song, a setting of Heine’s poem, titled “Ihr Bildnis” (“Her likeness”). The original (thus earlier) version was housed in the Zwickau archive and was not printed until 1992. Its difference from the published version is in an important detail. What is most unexpected is that the singer’s ending is unresolved, emphasizing the anguish suffered at the realization of losing the loved one. In the first version, the piano completes the song in a moving postlude. The other (second) version is more polished and a bit shorter, but it is still emotionally moving.   

Two versions of “Sie liebten sich beide” (“They were both in love”), the second song, and the only other song that exists in two versions, comes from a mysterious and tragic poem by Heine; Clara composed it in 1842, and revised it for the published edition of Op. 13. The first (and long unpublished) version has a more reflective, lengthy postlude, while the later, revised version has a more conventional ending.  

“Ich hab’ in deinem Auge” (“I saw in your eyes”), is based on a Rückert poem whose subject is the constancy of love. This song was either a present to Robert on his 33rd birthday or, as some have contended, was perhaps composed specifically for publication in this collection. 

Emanuel Geibel, Clara’s contemporary, is the author of three texts whose poems Clara set for this opus. Geibel’s work was sought by many composers because his subjects were conducive to being set to music. The Geibel songs include “Liebeszauber” (“Love’s magic”), a paean to love and to nature; “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” (“The moon rises in silence”), which, in particular, features very unusual harmonies in the first two verses; and the third and the last song in the Op. 13 grouping, “Die stille Lotosblume” ("The quiet lotus bloom”). This song includes romantic archetypal symbols: the lotus flower itself as well as water, the moon, moonbeams, a white swan, and even death. “Die stille Lotosblume” has often been cited as the quintessential romantic song and was later included in many anthologies of 19th-century music for its poignant lyricism and symbolism, as well as its unresolved question, which forms the end of the vocal part.  

The Op. 13 lieder were reissued by Breitkopf & Härtel in the 1870s in versions for both high and low voices. Autographs of her unpublished lieder were known only to scholars and were held in Berlin and Zwickau archives until they were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1992; following that by only a few years, in the late 1990s, a number of songs that were either thought to be lost or completely unknown, were uncovered.

                                                                                                                                                                       © Susan Halpern, 2025

Joel Thompson is a composer, conductor, pianist, and educator whose works aim to prioritize community and facilitate connection. His work is powerful and incisive and centers the concerns and desires of the voiceless and historically marginalized. Thompson draws inspiration from artists who have transcended labels and have a clear sense of identity, such as Nina Simone, Esperanza Spalding, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. 
 
Thompson has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Atlanta Master Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Kansas City Symphony, American Composers Forum, and Sphinx Organization’s EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble (of which he is a founding member). 
 
Thompson currently serves as Houston Grand Opera’s first ever full-time Composer-in-Residence, holding a five-year residency that commenced in 2022. Recent commissions include Dove Songs, written for and performed by soprano Renée Richardson, which premiered at Houston Grand Opera in March 2024. He was also commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to create an operatic adaptation of Ezra Jack Keats’ illustrated children’s story, The Snowy Day, which has been long celebrated as one of the first mainstream children’s books to prominently feature a Black protagonist. 
 
To See the Sky, premiered in March 2024 by Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic was co-commissioned by the American Composers Forum, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Bravo! Vail Music Festival. Another of Thompson’s most recent works is Fire and Blue Sky, commissioned and premiered by LA Opera in June 2024 under the baton of Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados, featuring a libretto by Imani Tolliver. 
 
Well known for the choral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, which premiered at the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club under the direction of Eugene Rogers in November 2015, Thompson has received several accolades for the piece including the 2018 American Prize for Choral Composition and the Craft Specialty-Musical Composition/Arrangement EMMY® at The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Michigan Chapter) 39th EMMY® Award Ceremony. Seven Last Words of the Unarmed contains seven movements, each setting to music the last words of an unarmed Black man before he was killed. 
 
Thompson received his BA in Music and MM in Choral Conducting, both from Emory University. He is currently working towards his DMA in composition from the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Christopher Theofanidis. Thompson is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works commissioning program, established to foster leading talents in the field. 

Thompson shares this note directed to his new work’s listeners: 

“It’s a struggle to describe exactly why Ariana Benson’s poetry speaks to my soul—it just does. I’ve read her first book, Black Pastoral, several times this year—each poem revealing more of itself (and myself) in each re-reading. There are many poems in this collection that I dare not bother with my music as they are perfect just as they are, but “On Mars" immediately sang to me right off the page. Why? It’s futile to try to explain the alchemical. But, I suppose that, while this Earth slowly burns and its most powerful governments seem intent on war and genocide and metastatically feeding off of our despair, it makes sense that I’d be drawn to Benson’s subtle urgings to hold onto hope by allowing my imagination to extend beyond the bounds of this atmosphere. Her words remind me and many other Black Americans that it is a revolutionary act to imagine a place that truly feels like home. It is a revolutionary act to dream of a life unfettered by concerns of brutality, poverty, and prejudice. It is a revolutionary act to seek (and hold on to) our peace. I hope this piece functions not only as a reminder that our imaginations are fundamental tools for our collective liberation but I also hope these songs serve as an invitation for us to use them as we seek a more just future.”

                                                                                                 © Susan Halpern, 2025

This work was co-commissioned by Celebrity Series of Boston through Music Accord... 
Comprised of top classical music presenting organizations throughout the United States, Music Accord is a consortium that commissions new works in the chamber music, instrumental recital and song genres. The Consortium's goal is to create a significant number of new works and to ensure presentation of these works in venues throughout this country and, if the occasion arises, internationally. Music Accord awards commissions principally to performers who are US citizens or reside in the US and assists these performers in selecting composers who are United States citizens or who reside in the United States. 

Composer Joel Thompson cites Ariana Benson's 2023 poem "On Mars" as the inspiration for the vocal work created for this ensemble. 

Listen to an episode of The Slowdown poetry podcast where host Major Jackson considers a celestial experience and reads the poem. (Transcript available)

The Slowdown, episode 971 (7 minutes)