Madison is about to experience its coldest weather this winter with a sub-zero weekend in store.

So what new releases will I listen to as I huddle inside?

I think it will be a new recording on Harmonia Mundi of the two Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, in E-Flat major and F Minor, Op. 120, which so early in the new year already seems sure to make my "Top 10 of 2008" list next fall.

The performances feature virutoso clarinettist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, a gold medalist in the Van Cliburn International Competition who has already shown himself to be an outstanding Brahms interpreter in his recording of the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor and 10 of the late piano pieces. In these works, he proves the piano, Brahms' preferred instrument on which he was close to a virtuoso, to be a full partner to the clarinet.

I've only listened to snippets of this CD so far, but I am deeply pleased and want to hear both sonatas all the way through several times and with my full attention.

After all, the works are not only pinnacles of Brahms, but also landmarks in the clarinet repertoire, the entire chamber music repertoire and just maybe in all of classical music.

The two sonatas offer different, contrasting oods: the E-Flat is more upbeat, the F minor more introspective. But both are enthralling works that require repeated hearings to yield up their treasures.

Like most great classics.

It is also hard to beat these compelling, flawless performances.

Both artists offer outstanding tone (captured with excellent sonics and engineering) and striking articulation that adds a convincing transparency to the poignant and darker bittersweetness of late Brahms.

The program notes also seem to imply that perhaps Brahms, at 58, felt a physical or even sexual attraction to the younger male clarinettist, Richard Muelhfeld who inspired the works (as well as Brahms' Clarinet Trio and Clarinet Quintet) and who premiered them.

I don't know enough about Brahms' biography and about new musicological research to say whether that is plausible for the same composer who had a lifelong, unconsummated romance with Clara Schumann.

Can anybody out there enlighten me and others about the possibility that new historical, biographical or musicological research is showing that perhaps Brahms, like Schubert or Chopin, was quietly gay, bisexual or at least homoerotic?

Oh, and also tell Art Talks readers and fellow listeners what you're listening to. Suggestions about new recordings are always appreciated.

And often followed.

By me, if no one else.