Frühling / Schreker / Brahms: The Wind

This program follows the album Brahms | Berg | Zemlinsky, released by Cypres and awarded a Gramophone Choice. It continues the reflection on late 19th-century Vienna and the transition to modernity, exploring the connections between Johannes Brahms, Carl Frühling, and Franz Schreker. At the center are three works with deliberately hybrid instrumentation: Brahms’s Horn Trio, Carl Frühling’s Trio Op. 40 for clarinet, cello, and piano, and Franz Schreker’s Quintet “Der Wind” for violin, clarinet, horn, cello, and piano. They illustrate the path from mature Romanticism to Viennese Modernism and uniquely combine strings, piano, and wind instruments into a subtle world of tonal color. Founded in 2006, Ensemble Kheops is one of Belgium’s leading chamber music ensembles. This recording is the first installment in a triptych marking its twentieth anniversary.