With these late collections Brahms retreats into his most confiding manner, and Anna Fedorova plays them as the private utterances they are. The three intermezzi of Op. 117 unfold like songs without words, while the six pieces of Op. 118 range from ardent outpouring to hushed introspection — music Clara Schumann admired for the way it seemed to shine and whisper at once. The four Klavierstücke of Op. 119 close the set, the piano at times swelling to an almost orchestral fullness that recalls the young composer Robert Schumann had championed four decades earlier. Throughout, the lifelong bond with Clara, among the first to read these manuscripts, hovers over the music like a quiet presence.