Salonmusik der Spätromantik

A café concert of the repertoire that was meant to be heard close up: Paul Juon's trio miniatures and songs, then Max Bruch's eight pieces for clarinet, viola and piano — a combination Bruch put together for his own clarinettist son, and one that sounds less like a performance than like three people who know each other talking. Juon is the rarer name on the bill, a Moscow-born composer who spent his working life in Berlin and wrote with one ear on Brahms.