DESCRIPTION:
Matthias Helm -- Bariton
José-Daniel Martínez -- Klavier
Tontechnik: Alexander Nantschev
http://www.nantschev.com
http://www.crystalhorizon.com

Einen Artikel auf Deutsch über diese Lieder finden Sie über: http://www.martinez.at/brahms_4_ernste_gesaenge_notizen_martinez.html
We recorded these songs in February 2013 in the Concertosaal of the Musikschule in Wels, Upper Austria. Alexander Nantschev was our recording engineer.
http://www.matthias-helm.com/
http://www.martinez.at/jose/disc/frame_disc_german.htm

The following article has been written by Dr. Kelly Dean Hansen and has been taken from her page dedicated to program notes on most of Brahms' works (http://www.kellydeanhansen.com). JD Martínez has added some additional information which appears in brackets [ ].
While Brahms did not stick to his plan to retire from composition after the Op. 111 String Quintet, his production certainly decelerated. The last two sets of piano pieces (Opp. 118-119) appeared in 1893, the huge collection of 33 folksong arrangements in 1894, and finally the two clarinet sonatas in 1895. [Piano Pieces Op. 116-117 and the Clarinet Trio and Quintet Op. 114 and 115 had been published in 1892]
The Four Serious Songs [Vier ernste Gesänge] represent the only composition published in the last year of the composer's life, and were in fact presented to the publisher on his last birthday. They stand completely apart from his other songs, and are virtual motets in the clothing of art song. They are compact, refined, masterpieces. The biblical texts are chosen from the pessimistic early chapters of Ecclesiastes [Chap. 3/19-22, Chap. 4/1-3] and also from the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus (or Jesus Sirach) [41/1-4]. The major-key hymn to love (or "charity") from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians [13/1-3, 12, 13] is not as "serious," but it represents the culmination of a progression across the cycle from bitterness to edification, from pessimistic realism to humanistic transcendence. Nonetheless, as in the Requiem, Brahms wanted no misunderstanding, so they are explicitly "serious," not "sacred." The songs were composed during Clara Schumann's final illness. The composer may or may not have been aware of the cancer that was taking root in his own body. More likely, the knowledge of Clara's coming death, coupled with a recent and depressing series of deaths among those close to him, [pianist Elizabeth von Herzogenberg, singer and Brahms champion Hermine Spies, close friend Dr. Theodor Billroth, and conductor and also Brahms champion Hans von Bülow] all contributed to the mood that brought these songs forth.
The prose texts from the Luther Bible do not admit strophic forms, but Brahms is careful to construct all four with clear elements of symmetry and balance. The progression from despair to love across the set is reflected in the fact that each song becomes more "major" than the one before it. No. 1 is completely minor. Nos. 2 and 3 have major-key endings, but that of No. 3 is proportionally larger. Nos. 2 and 3 display some thematic connections in their chains of descending thirds. The piano parts are generally rather economical, although the faster "dust storm" sections of No. 1 and the many left-hand leaps of No. 4 are challenging. No. 3, particularly when it reaches the section in 4/2 (where it changes to the major key), has a benedictory character from which No. 4 must work hard to escape. The songs are meant for bass, made explicit by Brahms through his use of the bass clef (which he almost never employed in the vocal staves of song manuscripts). A high-voice version exists, and women do sing them on occasion, but there is no doubt that Brahms's indication of a lower male voice is the most suited for the songs, even when it is strained to its upper limit at the end of No.4. The texts lend themselves to several effective shifts of meter, tempo, and occasionally key.
This uncompromisingly honest final testament of the sung word is also a textbook pattern for how to set biblical texts in a skillful manner. The dedication to [Max] Klinger acknowledges his series of prints inspired by Brahms's music. [Klinger, painter and engraver who in 1894 had made an allegory titled Brahms-Phantasie, also lost his father in 1896.]
Dr. Kelly Dean Hansen