Brahms's Piano Music and Concerti.

[DoctorT]

Barry Douglas has a contract with Chandos to record all the Brahms piano music over the next few years. So far I've really enjoyed the first 2 CDs, although some people may not like the way his recitals are arranged. His Handel varioations are excellent. I can't wait to hear his recordings of the concerti - in the meantime my Kovacevich/Sawallisch recordings will have to do. Kovacenich's recordings of the late solo works are great too

[Barbirollians]

Solomon is unmatched in the Handel Variations.

[BBMmk2]

What a total plonker!

Money whats that?:)

i cant wait to hear a certain few cds, all will be revealed next week!!

[Barbirollians]

Angelich's recordings of both concertos with Paavo jarvi are excellent and very refreshing .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What a total plonker!

[Rolmill]

Not Fricsay - Das Wunder himself

Ah yes, that's the one, thanks.

...nobody else (AFAIK) has done a comparable "complete" set, and this is probably the cheapest way of getting the works in one easy payment!

I believe Martin Jones, Gerhard Oppitz and Andreas Boyde have done complete sets (for Nimbus, RCA and Oehms respectively), but I have to admit that the Katchen is more tempting - and, as you say, cheaper!

I had forgotten that I have Kempff playing Brahms in his contribution to the Philips GPOTC series - haven't listened to it for ages (I have a vague recollection that the sound was a bit dull), but Kempff at his best had all the qualities needed (lucidity, refinement, beauty of tone) to play Brahms really well IMO.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I believe Martin Jones, Gerhard Oppitz and Andreas Boyde have done complete sets (for Nimbus, RCA and Oehms respectively), but I have to admit that the Katchen is more tempting - and, as you say, cheaper!

IIRC Idil Biret on NAXOS is the most complete of all; including the exercises and teaching pieces that I don't think Brahms actually published. Like Jones on NIMBUS, a pianist whose work I admire without its ever astonishing me.

I had forgotten that I have Kempff playing Brahms in his contribution to the Philips GPOTC series - haven't listened to it for ages (I have a vague recollection that the sound was a bit dull), but Kempff at his best had all the qualities needed (lucidity, refinement, beauty of tone) to play Brahms really well IMO.

- nicely put, Rol.

[ostuni]

This thread got me listening again to Brahms far too late into the night... And, perfect for bedtime, the gorgeously autumnal late Klavierstücke, opp 116-119. I love Anna Gourari (Berlin Classics), though she is often very dreamy, flexible, and slow. Perahia and Lupu are maybe safer recommendations for these (just 118-9 for Perahia).

And before that, I was Spotifying through some 1st Piano Concertos, and ended up listening all the way through to the Freire/Chailly recording (which I already have on CD): surely the best of the modern recordings, with some absolutely beautiful orchestral playing from the Gewandhausorchester, and superb playing from Freire, never dragging in i (so many do), but beautifully expressive in ii. Excellent sound, divided violins: it's got everything I look for!

[rauschwerk]

I heartily recommend Solomon (with Philh/Dobrowen, 1947) as the finest recorded performance of the B flat concerto I have heard. He takes all that heavy writing before the first tutti and elsewhere right up to speed (so many pianists make a meal of this) with thrilling results.

Katchen, recorded at about the same time, is also unmissable in his first recording of the third sonata. Again, he keeps it all moving where some pianists tend towards self-indulgence. I used to bash through this in my teenage years and know all too well how punishing some of the writing is.

[Barbirollians]

Solomon's recording of the third sonata is also pretty special . On a smaller note - Lipatti and Boulanger's recording of some waltzes are captivating.

[gurnemanz]

I admire the two recorded performances by Stephen Kovacevich with both Sawallisch and Sir Colin Davis - not up-to-date certainly but bristling with good things and some great couplings

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/search.php?searchString=Brahms+Kovacevich

So do I (Sawallisch ... I don't know the Davis) and, as you say, the imaginative and excellent coupling of a some late songs from Ann Murray is a real bonus.

[Keraulophone]

Perahia and Lupu are maybe safer recommendations for these [opp 116-119] (just 118-9 for Perahia).

This is, perhaps, music in which 'safer' performances can be very satisfying over repeated listening, particularly the two aforementioned. I would not wish to listen to Ivo Pogorelich's excruciatingly deliberate, fawned-over interpretation more than once a year, but even that has its place. Two contrasting pianists whom I have found rewarding in these sublime pieces are Glenn Gould and Maria Yudina. GG is said to have been particularly proud of his recording of the Intermezzi, and I am inclined to agree with him that it is very special indeed, particularly in Op 118/2. Yudina's muscular playing would seem more suited to Beethoven, yet her recordings from the early 1950s present a refreshingly unvarnished view of the music.

Clifford Curzon's famous PC1 with an uncooperative but magnificent Szell (+LSO) hasn't been mentioned yet; nor his fine 3rd Sonata.

[amateur51]

This is, perhaps, music in which 'safer' performances can be very satisfying over repeated listening, particularly the two aforementioned. I would not wish to listen to Ivo Pogorelich's excruciatingly deliberate, fawned-over interpretation more than once a year, but even that has its place. Two contrasting pianists whom I have found rewarding in these sublime pieces are Glenn Gould and Maria Yudina. GG is said to have been particularly proud of his recording of the Intermezzi, and I am inclined to agree with him that it is very special indeed, particularly in Op 118/2. Yudina's muscular playing would seem more suited to Beethoven, yet her recordings from the early 1950s present a refreshingly unvarnished view of the music.

Clifford Curzon's famous PC1 with an uncooperative but magnificent Szell (+LSO) hasn't been mentioned yet; nor his fine 3rd Sonata.

Excellent mentions there, Keraulophone

I seem to remember Joan Chisell (no less!) in the original Gramophone review of Gould's Brahms describing it as being like someone walking around an unfamiliar room in the dark - starting, stopping when he bumps into something, etc. ;biggrin:

[cloughie]

A question I posed before the Brahms Orchestral was overtaken by this thread. PC1 LSO Monteux, PC2 LSO Ferencsik - to my knowledge his only recording for Decca or the LSO. Was he drafted in late because of the indisposition or even demise of the great M. Monteux? Can anyone shed any light on this?

[gradus]

Another lover of the op 116-119 pieces here,especially in Glenn Gould's recording.
Wonderful that Barry Douglas's is recording all Brahms piano music, I recently heard him play op 116/4 as an encore and very much enjoyed his way with it.