Paul Meyer, Wen-Sinn Yang, Oliver Triendl - Wilhelm Berger: Clarinet Trio op. 94, Cello Sonata op. 28 & Scherzo for Cello and Piano (2026) [Hi-Res]

Wilhelm Berger, the son of a music shop owner in Bremen, was not only destined for a tragic end (he died at barely fifty in the same year as Gustav Mahler). A student of Ernst Rudorff, Friedrich Kiel, and Woldemar Bargiel, and later the court conductor in Meiningen, he took a much more conservative musical direction than contemporaries such as Richard Strauss, and as a result, he was no longer in vogue soon after his death; moreover, due to a shared surname, he remained in the shadow of the Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger for many decades after his death—even though, from a musical standpoint, the two cannot possibly be confused. Whether in his works for orchestra, vocal music, or chamber music—Berger’s music always strikes a familiar note that nonetheless points beyond his role model: Johannes Brahms served as an inspiration in many respects (not least, quite specifically, in the instrumentation of the works recorded here); yet neither the youthful, impetuous sonata nor the exquisitely resonant trio—composed some two decades later—leaves the slightest doubt that Wilhelm Berger was able to make the most of his own talents.