Brahms piano music

[Belgrove]

... most often I seem to go back to -

Stefan Vladar (harmonia mundi: op 116-119)

I buy each new issue of these sublime works, but none have displaced Vladar's account. A perfect fusion of lyricism and complexity. I was agreeably surprised that David Owen-Norris chose this in his Building a Library, given that Vladar's profile is not that prominent. Sadly it seems quite difficult to get hold of these days.

[silvestrione]

I don't have ONE pianist I go to in these works. But there are some very special individual performances:
Op 119 No 3 in C maj., Curzon (downloadable from Amazon) , where the descending sextuplet alone is genius
Op 119 No 4 the Rhapsody in E flat, Richter live in Locarno, 18.9.66. Nobody else could play like this, such verve, such rhythmic energy, thrilling and affirmative. Those strong large hands are made for pieves like this!
Incidentally, both these pieces give the lie to the view that sees these late pieces as gloomy or pessimistic or melancholic.
Op 118 No 6 Rubinstein, as I mentioned above
Op 118 No 5 Stefan Vladar
Op 117 No 1 Schnabel
I like the live Michelangeli Ballades mentioned above, but Rubinstein is incomparable in the first, a great story-teller!
There is a live version of Op 118 No 1 (played on CD Review by Stephen Plaistow) by Richter that gives a very unusual and entrancing interpretation, meditative, ruminative, rather than the usual appassionato. On Youtube, an encore in Japan, Richter plays it VERY passioantely, quite different.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I share the enthusiasm for the short piano pieces but would like to put in a word for the variation-sets. Anyone else join me? The Handel var's seem to be respectable, the Paganini ones a little less so (too flashy, i think some reckon), and the miscellaneous sets (op 9, 21/1 & 21/2) hardly ever get a mention let alone exposure on-air or in recitals.

I first met op21/1 in the hands of Balint Vaszonyi on an old Pye TPLS LP and finally tracked down the other two sets in a Brilliant box done by Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardi. (OK, I know I could have bought the complete Katchen but I've already got most of that on LP!)

Perhaps my very favourite set of Brahms pf var's is a bit of a cheat: B's own arrangement of the Theme & Variations from the String sextet Op 18. But it really is cosmic in either version: on pf I've got Idil Beret on Naxos - cheap but effective, and with some bizarre but interesting couplings. Did you know B did a version of the scherzo of Schumann's pf 5tet for solo piano, a version of the Rakoczy March, or a Schubert impromptu for LH only??

Does anyone make claims for the first 2 piano sonatas? I caught on to the 3rd in the Curzon recording very early but the other two haven't come close, despite advocacy on my shelves from Arrau (both) and Helene Grimaud (2nd).

Back among the short pieces, has anyone mentioned Gilels's Op116/1 on DG? Ought to have as it's on the back of the LP with the Ballades!

[Roehre]

I share the enthusiasm for the short piano pieces but would like to put in a word for the variation-sets. Anyone else join me? The Handel var's seem to be respectable, the Paganini ones a little less so (too flashy, i think some reckon), and the miscellaneous sets (op 9, 21/1 & 21/2) hardly ever get a mention let alone exposure on-air or in recitals. !

LMP, I share your enthousiasm for the variation sets. And we are not the only ones, from the Schumann variations op.23 Roberto Benzi made a typically Brahmsian orchestration, and Rubbra's ditto of the Handel variations op.24 is certainly worth more than one outing (but do we hear these either in the concert hall or on R3 ?)

My first encounter with the Paganini did me think these were a bit OTT. But I must say that I revised that opinion after a couple of listenings, and "helped" by listening to Schumann's and i.a. Lutoslawski's Paganini-variations too (not to mention that 5th piano concerto by Rachmaninov ).

The variations from op.18 are my favourites too, in the original sextet version, in Brahms' own piano version (Barenboim made a lovely recording of these) or in its string-orchestral disguise by Carl Davis (and some other conductors made such an arrangement too, btw). LMP, ever listened to Richard Strauss' Festliches Präludium op.61? No guesses where Strauss had nicked that melody! (Bruch not the only victim of the Strauss magpie ).

As far as other rather unknown Brahms piano works are concerned: Bach, Chopin, Schubert and Schumann transcriptions, piano transcriptions of nearly all his own orchestral and chamber music scores, a bunch of etudes and the very interesting cadenzas to a couple of Beethoven and Mozart concertos (Most of it on Naxos).

My favourite piano set is Katchen's, btw.

[Nick Armstrong]

I buy each new issue of these sublime works, but none have displaced Vladar's account. A perfect fusion of lyricism and complexity. I was agreeably surprised that David Owen-Norris chose this in his Building a Library, given that Vladar's profile is not that prominent. Sadly it seems quite difficult to get hold of these days.

Which was your favourite before that came out (not that long ago)...?

[akiralx]

Many thanks for reminding me about Zimerman's performance, akiralx - I have it only on tape so I must set about finding it on CD lest I should find that the tape has stretched/disintegrated

You will struggle, sadly - KZ has refused to allow its reissue and the CD set of the three sonatas go for high prices on eBay.

[Belgrove]

Which was your favourite before that came out (not that long ago)...?

It was the Kovacevich set. I picked it up in the States for a bargain $5 in the days when CD's in the UK were still very expensive and became thoroughly familiar with the works via these recordings. Still impressive, but a little heavy handed maybe? Played the Perahia set last night (Handel Variations, Op 79,118,119). Impressive too, but not a kaleidoscopic as Vladar in the Late Works.

[BBMmk2]

My favourite piano set is Katchen's, btw.[/QUOTE]

Ah, thank you for that, Roehre! Anbother member likes this set!!

[EdgeleyRob]

I wouldn't be without it BBM.

[Barbirollians]

Solomon surely is the benchmark in the Handel Variations coupled on Testament with his marvellous Brahms 1 with Kubelik.