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Brahms - Piano works vol. 2

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Label
Catalogue numberBIS-2117 SACD
Release date2014-09-10
Discs1
Orig. sample rate96000Hz
Total time76:24

Editor’s Choice, Limelight
“10/10”, ClassicsToday.com
Instrumental Choice, BBC Music Magazine

“Eine vorzügliche Aufnahme… Spieltechnisch allererster Klasse.” Pianonews; “Brahmsians will want to hear this latest milestone in interpretation of his piano music. Others will also relish this superb disc, representing the original thinking and expert playing of an artist in the full blossom of maturity. Highly recommended.” International Record Review

On a first disc dedicated to Johannes Brahms’s solo piano music (released in December 2012), Jonathan Plowright performed two monumental works: the Handel Variations and Piano Sonata No.3. In terms of duration, the Second Piano Sonata which opens the current disc is scarcely less impressive, with a playing time of almost 30 minutes. It is the work of a young man eager to make his mark both as pianist and composer: virtuosic, tempestuous and often not especially Brahmsian. But there are signs of what was to come, for instance in the slow second movement; inspired by the text of a medieval troubadour song and cast in Brahm’s much-loved variation form, it testifies to his enduring interest in the musical traditions of the past. Of the remaining works on the disc, the Scherzo was actually composed before the Sonata, in 1851, while the Op.21 Variations probably saw the light of day not much later, possibly around 1855. The Variations seems in part to have been an exercise which Brahms set himself in order to perfect his command of the form, but is at the same time a searching creation of considerable poetry. The introspective quality in Op.21 is one that returns in Brahms’s last works for the piano, including the Three Intermezzi, published in 1892, and probably composed not long before that date. At once one of the darkest and most beautiful of Brahms’s late piano works, the set seems to have had an especially personal signi­fi­cance for him, and he once referred to it as ‘The lullaby of all my griefs’. Recommending the previous instalment, a critic on the German public radio broadcaster Radio Bremen described the combination of Jonathan Plowright and Johannes Brahms as ‘a British-German dream team’. His counterpart in BBC Music Magazine found ‘tremendous warmth, plus an intimate atmosphere’ in the performances, qualities that certainly come to the fore on this second disc in the series.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 17.84
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Brahms, Johannes
  Piano Sonata No.2 in F sharp minor, Op.2 (1853) 28:30
01 I. Allegro non troppo, ma energico 05:34 $ 1.34 USD
02 II. Andante con espressione 06:56 $ 1.66 USD
03 III. Scherzo. Allegro – Trio. Poco più moderato 03:36 $ 0.86 USD
04 IV. Finale. Sostenuto – Allegro non troppo e rubato –
Molto sostenuto
12:24 $ 2.98 USD
 
 
  Composer: Brahms, Johannes
  Variations on an Original Theme, Op.21 No.1 (1855–57?) 19:56
05 Thema. Poco larghetto 01:42 $ 0.41 USD
06 Variation I 01:43 $ 0.41 USD
07 Variation II. Più moto 00:58 $ 0.23 USD
08 Variation III. L’istesso tempo 01:13 $ 0.29 USD
09 Variation IV 01:09 $ 0.28 USD
10 Variation V. Tempo di tema 01:55 $ 0.46 USD
11 Variation VI. Più moto 01:15 $ 0.30 USD
12 Variation VII. Andante con moto 01:49 $ 0.44 USD
13 Variation VIII. Allegro non troppo 00:50 $ 0.20 USD
14 Variation IX 00:53 $ 0.21 USD
15 Variation X 01:23 $ 0.33 USD
16 Variation XI. Tempo di tema, poco più lento 05:06 $ 1.22 USD
 
 
  Composer: Brahms, Johannes
  Three Intermezzi, Op.117 (1892) 17:39
17 I. Andante moderato 04:56 $ 1.18 USD
18 II. Andante non troppo e con molto espressione 05:44 $ 1.38 USD
19 III. Andante con moto 06:59 $ 1.68 USD
 
20 Scherzo in E flat minor, Op.4 (1851) 08:16 $ 1.98 USD
  Album total 76:24
ComposerBrahms, Johannes
PianoPlowright, Jonathan

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