Early Chamber Music by Fritz Brun (1878-1959), often called the „last romantic symphonist“. For more than thirty years, Fritz Brun was chief conductor of the city orchestra in Bern, Switzerland. He was strongly influenced by Johannes Brahms and extremely respected as a composer in his time. His rich symphonic output is currently experiencing a remarkable renaissance. Now, chamber music is also moving into the limelight. While the wonderful 1st String Quartet from his student days in Cologne was not performed for decades and has now received its premiere recording by the Swiss Manuel Quartet, the passionate 1st Violin Sonata presented on the same album, is s performed slightly more often.
Strange enough: The highly passionate first violin sonata is still known to only a few violinists, which is all the more incomprehensible since it can certainly compare with the often performed sonatas by Brahms or Fauré. Until now, this work has only been available on record in abridged and “lightened” versions. The astonishing originality, the musical “impositions” and enormous technical challenges of the work can now be fully experienced for the first time in this rewarding and stirring recording by Stefan Meier and the pianist Alexander Ruef.
