Caspar Joseph Brambach: Complete Piano Quartets / Piano Sextet Op. 5

Caspar Joseph Brambach, who was two months younger than Johannes Brahms and survived him by almost five years, once basked in the glow of considerable attention. He studied and later taught at the Cologne Conservatory and was music director in Bonn for eight years before he dedicated himself solely to his own compositions, in which vocal music played a predominant role. His works for male chorus were especially well received, but his instrumental works were also popular. Brambach, who was from the Rhineland, left no doubt that the masters of the Romantic era, above all Robert Schumann, played an important role in his musical world. This first recording includes the sextet for piano and strings from his last year in Cologne and just as he moved to Bonn (around 1860). Also featured are his three piano quartets, the last of which the composer used to champion his ideals shortly before the turn of the 20th century.