Composers, performers, and poets alike have all had their day in court. Johannes Brahms was a witness against his good friend in a divorce hearing. Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann sued her father for the chance to be married against his wishes. Franz Schubert and Ethel Smyth were arrested for revolutionary opinions and political activism. The centerpiece of the program is Brahms’s Op. 91: two songs written before and after an acrimonious court battle in which Brahms was a witness. Hear these stories and more—and the music they inspired—in this program for voice, viola and piano.