Brahms, Beethoven, and Shostakovich Sonatas

What makes a sonata great? This most intimate form of chamber music, an equal give-and-take between two artists, has inspired composers from classical to modern times to write some of their most exciting, personal and delightfully intriguing music. From Brahms’s masterful, profound late-period clarinet sonata we move to Shostakovich’s last work, finished only weeks before his death. The mournful voice of the viola expresses Shostakovich’s farewel...