Brahms Duets
Renee Grant-Williams, Soprano
Dorothy Barnhouse, Mezzo Soprano
Alden Gilchrist, Piano
Renee Grant-Williams, Dorothy Barnhouse, and pianist Alden Gilchrist captured the spirit of the 19th century when they recorded an historic album of Brahms duets at 1750 Arch Records in Berkeley, California.
To date, this album of Brahms Duets remains the only known recorded collection of
these lovely and rarely-heard duets.
The year is 1876; the elite of Leipzig take their seats in the ornate drawing room eagerly anticipating the pleasures of the liederabend that lies ahead. Two women, one soprano, one mezzo-soprano, stand in the crook of the piano ready to charm their listeners with a program of duets by Johannes Brahms. The maestro strikes a chord and the music begins...
One hundred years later, in 1976, Renee Grant-Williams, Dorothy Barnhouse, and pianist Alden Gilchrist recaptured the spirit of this scene as they recorded an historic album of Brahms duets at 1750 Arch Records in Berkeley, California. To date, Brahms Duets remains the only known recorded collection of these lovely and rarely-heard duets.
The recording process was gimmick-free, two well-placed microphones in a large room, which gives this recording an authentic quality that transports the listener back to a time a hundred years ago, when intimate ensemble singing and musicianship were valued over bells and whistles. The editing process, too, was unsophisticated by present standards. With only three splices in the album, the majority of the duets are presented intact.
