Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

DVORAK: Four-Hand Piano Music, Vol. 2

BACH, C.P.E.: Hamburg Sinfonias Nos. 1 - 6, Wq. 182

Brahms: Four-Hand Piano Music, Vol. 2

Brahms: Four-Hand Piano Music, Vol. 1

Includes work(s) by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

BENDA, J. A.: Sinfonias Nos. 7-12

Benda: Sinfonias Nos. 1-6

Includes pavan(s) by William Byrd.

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 37

STRAUSS, Josef: Edition - Vol. 9

In the late 1850s, Brahms was doing a number of things involving symphonies and pianos. He was having a heck of a time getting his first symphony to fly, and while working on a D minor sonata for 2 pianos, he decided to turn that work into a symphony. However, finding the pianistic ideas intractable, he ended up with his Piano Concerto No. 1. A few years later, he embarked on a multi-movement "symphony serenade" for small orchestra, which was published in 1860 as the Serenade No. 1 in D major, along with its companion, No. 2 in A major.
Despite the initial notion that these might be proto-symphonies, they are relaxed, genial works, well suited to the name "serenade." Brahms also published them in four-hand piano scores, an arrangement to which they adapt quite nicely. They sound wonderfully fresh here, given invigorating performances by the German piano team of Silke-Thora Matthies and Christian Kohn.