Clarinet Trio, Op. 94 & Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 28

Not only did Wilhelm Berger, the son of a music storeowner from Bremen, suffer a premature death (he died barely fifty years old in the same year as Gustav Mahler). The student of Ernst Rudorff, Friedrich Kiel and Woldemar Bargiel, who became court conductor in Meiningen, went in a considerably more conservative direction than contemporaries such as Richard Strauss. Soon after his death, he was no longer en vogue and due to their similarity in names, he was for decades obscured by the Swede Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. In terms of their music, they were nothing alike and could not be confused with one another. Whether in his orchestral works, vocal music or chamber music, Berger's style always strikes a familiar tone, yet one that goes beyond his models. Johannes Brahms served as an inspiration in many respects (not least in the instrumentation of the works recorded here); yet neither the youthful, rapturous sonata nor the exceptionally beautiful trio, composed some two decades later, leave the slightest doubt that Wilhelm Berger was able to make the most of his own talents.