Classical Music

When Barry Douglas won his first prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1986 he was promptly engaged by Melodiya to record one of the works he had to offer: the Brahms D minor Concerto. Douglas's playing proved to be commending enough but as we can hear on the Olympia/Conifer CD issue of the Melodiya disc, the recording and orchestral playing left a lot to be desired ((CD) OCD137). So this new RCA recording, expertly produced and recorded last February in St Giles, Cripplegate with Skrowaczewski and the LSO, is greatly to be welcomed as the true memento of Douglas's Moscow triumph.

There is never any doubt that Douglas is technically, and in large measure emotionally, in command of this daunting work, and there is far better rapport here between pianist, conductor and orchestra than there was on the Melodiya issue. The slow movement, rapt and serious, is memorably sustained; there is nothing lax about the ensemble, nothing mannered or over-rhetorical about the playing. And the great first movement is held firmly on course. Once or twice I missed the sheer impetus of Szell's great reading with the same orchestra for Curzon on Decca (the leggiero before the recapitulation dancing in a way that fires up the soloist rather than damping him down) but doubts about the initially broad tempo (as broad as Haitink's for Arrau on Philips) were unfounded. Douglas's marvellous realization of the E major recapitulation confirms that this is the tempo he wants, unlike Pollini on an older DG recording who flatly contradicts Bohm's spacious opening at the point of recapitulation. If I have doubt about any of the movements in the new RCA recording, it is the finale. I know Brahms marks it Allegro non troppo but from the outset of the movement there seems here to be a degree of circumspection, the absence of the kind of compelling dynamism that will drive the music on into self-absorbed unity through its several episodes.

Nowadays RCA no longer make concerto recordings with clattery pianos and dimly recessed orchestras. Douglas and his Steinway make a fierce, brilliant sound, but there is much that is exquisitely quiet, especially in the slow movement. The piano is forward but not unduly so, and the sound it makes is not all like polished steel. The orchestra is very naturally recorded, with great depth of field. If anything, the horns, crucial in this work, are almost too atmospherically distant, though it must be said that the quietest pedal note does seem to carry through the texture.

The competition is, of course, formidable. Gilels, whom I occasionally find mannered in this concerto, offers a famous two-CD set of both the Brahms concertos on DG. Arrau is a law unto himself, uniquely searching. His is a fundamentally different kind of reading, touched with youthful energy but with the energy of a youth burdened beyond his years, as Brahms probably felt he was at this time. Curzon could be technically fallible in Brahms but he was a serious and sensitive interpreter of the music and inspired by Szell at his most excoriating he gave a performance of mingled poetry and electricity that even he must have wondered at.

Douglas doesn't displace these masters but he has every right to co-exist with them. As a young Brahmsian he reminds me somewhat of the late Julius Katchen, fearless but sensitive, robust but never crass. Let us hope that RCA will not feed Douglas a diet of popular concertos; Katchen recorded all Brahms's solo piano music, and Douglas ought to be offered some comparable projects. Talent of this order needs space in which to roam and grow.'

-- Richard Osborne, Gramophone [3/1989]

"Gilels made two recordings of this concerto. The later version was made for DG in the early 1970s with Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and has earned a high reputation over the years. This earlier version, made in January 1958, is no less remarkable and very different. Perhaps it was the temporary transatlantic influence of Reiner and his orchestra which persuaded Gilels to see the concerto as a vehicle for a display of brilliant virtuoso playing, with fast tempos and little relaxation except in the third movement. certainly the playing in the overture has the same characteristics. But when this approach was harnessed to Gilel's intellectual strength the result was a performance of great power." -- The Gramophone

BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO 2 DAVIS,

Soloist and leader of the Camerata Bern, Antje Weithaas - "For any violinist, the Brahms Concerto is a special challenge and a precious gem, a piece one works on for decades. I studied it more intensely for the first time when I was 18-19; now I'm astounded to note how one's perception of such a work can change so radically. Amongst all violin concertos, Brahms, Beethoven and Mendelssohn play an essential role, and I would add Britten and Shostakovich. The Brahms Violin Concerto is part of our essential repertoire, and was composed at a time when the "customary" violin concerto no longer had any significance as virtuoso display for a soloist (incidentally, that's my own credo as a performer). This is a symphonic work, an aspect that relates it to the recording of Berg and Beethoven I made with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra a couple of years ago. Those two pieces from different stylistic periods are actually works for orchestra with obligato solo violin - and the same applies to the Brahms Concerto. The violin often plays passagework around the orchestra melody, as in the Beethoven Concerto, which is why I find the symphonic approach so important here as well...We tackled the challenge of performing and recording without a conductor. Of course, when I otherwise perform this concerto with a conductor, I intensely learn and think through the orchestra part in my head. It is a challenge I am aware of, and I thus probably would never have had dared to perform this concerto without a conductor. But since I've often performed the Beethoven Concerto with the Camerata Bern without a conductor, I started thinking that the Brahms Concerto just might work as well. Over teh past 7-9 years we have become so well-acquainted with one another on a musical and personal level that by now we manage to communicate with blindfolds on. I probably would not have dared to embark on this adventure with any other ensemble. The most important thing is that each musician should remain in a "chamber music" attitude while providing the necessary symphonic energy and assuming his/her share of responsibility.

BRAHMS GREATEST HITS (ECO-FRIE

A ride through the tunes with music from the Baroque to the Modern Era

Recorded in August 2022 at concerts given in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg under Kent Nagano, this version of Johannes Brahms's celebrated choral masterpiece will come as a surprise to many. The German Requiem is heard not in it's usual seven-movement version, but rather as it was first performed in Bremen Cathedral on 10th April 1868 (Good Friday) under Brahms's direction, without the fifth movement for soprano and choir that was completed later that year. On the other hand there are numerous interludes, instrumental and vocal, secular and sacred, by Bach, Tartini, Schumann and Handel - including pieces that were then regarded as essential parts of a Good Friday concert. Such a programme might seem unusual today, but these musical additions shed new light on Brahms's work, which in this version manifests itself as what Umberto Eco might have described as an 'open work'. Presenting the work in the form heard at the Bremen premiere is more than just a reconstruction: it enriches our understanding of this unique music.

The "Eleven Choral Preludes for Organ" op. 122 were completed by Johannes Brahms between May and June 1896. It was not until later, in 1902, that op. 122 was published posthumously. At the same time, Brahms' op. 122 did not escape the attention of the Italian composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni, who decided to transcribe six of the eleven choral preludes for piano. Over the course of his life, he transcribed numerous works by various composers for piano, including those by Bach that were intended for organ, harpsichord or violin. It is little known that Max Reger, in addition to his importance as a composer, was also one of the most important arrangers of the works of great colleagues. He arranged works by almost all the great masters, from Mozart to Richard Strauss. Reger always admired the compact form and the almost ascetic compositional discipline of Johannes Brahms. His admiration for the great North German is confirmed by the elaborate transcriptions of the "Five Slow Movements" from his four symphonies. Reger does not write them in a typically pianistic style, but rather he summarizes the entire melodic and harmonic richness in a kind of symphonic script. These transcriptions are the work of a brilliant musical mind who was able to grasp the music as a whole and, based on a complete understanding of the compositions, to present them in a new guise. The arrangements are extremely demanding for the pianist. It is not only a matter of master- ing the sometimes considerable and often far-reaching mass of notes, but also of allowing the themes woven into them to emerge, as is the case in the orchestra through the characteristics of the individual instruments. Brahms' well-known preference for the so-called "conflict rhythms" makes the task even more difficult. The rarities, so rich and demanding in sound and structure, are appearing on recording for the first time and should inspire many friends of the works of these two composers to take a closer look at them.

Composed between 1865 and 1868, Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem has become a repertoire staple for choirs around the world, amateur and professional alike, possibly because it relies so much more on the choir than it's soloists to convey the texts than other works. Brahms chose not to set the Requiem Mass, but rather a collection of biblical texts of his own selection, taken from the Lutheran Bible (hence the 'deutsches'). Rather than a prayer for the dead, Brahms's concern is much more with offering comfort to the bereaved, still on earth. When challenged about the lack of a single reference to Christ in the entire work, Brahms responded, 'I would gladly omit even the word German and simply put Human'. This adds credence to the view that he saw the work in an entirely humanist way, and that the religious overtones of the title and text selection are much more a result of the avowedly Christian culture of his times than a specific decision to express personal belief. Edward Gardner and his Bergen forces are joined by the soloists Johanna Wallroth and Brian Mulligan in this exciting new recording.

The present collection showcases studio and live recordings pianist Nelson Freire made for the SWR between 1968 and 1999. Though Freire was by his own account never really interested in a career and he even reduced considerably the number of live performances at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, he belongs to the most important pianists worldwide. A natural prodigy, Freire's style is characterised by elegance, charme and finnesse as well as deliberate avoidance of boasting.

BERNSTEIN FAVORITES- ORCHESTRA

Trumpet was meant to have a bright future after Handel and Bach, but history decided otherwise. Relegated to a military signal role with timpani, it had to wait until the later Romantic period to flourish once again. A brainchild of Andrew Balio, this album showcases his own transcriptions of works from the golden age of chamber music, inviting trumpeters out of the cold and into the cozy world of Brahms, Schumann, and Schubert. Pianist John Wilson partners Andrew for these new arrangements of Brahms's clarinet sonatas, Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, and Marchenbilder, and Schubert's lied 'Auf dem Strom', in which tenor Nicholas Phan gives voice to the text. Thanks to Andrew, trumpeters and music lovers can now enjoy an expanded repertoire which invites us into an entirely new soundworld.

BRAHMS: PIANO CONCERTO, VIOLIN

Composed near the end of Brahms's life, these two Sonatas were originally written for clarinet and received their first performance on January 7th, 1895 with Richard Mühlfeld (whose artistry had inspired the composer) and Brahms himself at the piano. However, Brahms always saw them as also playable on the viola, and that version goes further than merely transposing where necessary: for example, some figuration is changed and there is double-stopping, and in a few places the instrument plays where the clarinet is silent.

Both versions are well represented in the current catalogue, though the clarinet one is more numerous than that with viola. Nevertheless, this new disc is welcome. Rivka Golani brings a highly developed tonal flexibility to the music and shows a firm understanding of the style. So, for that matter, does her pianist Konstantin Bogino. Thus Brahms's darkish but often sadly beautiful vision is well realized, and the recording makes a good job of the difficult balancing act for these two instruments; even if the piano's bass has a thickish sound, that is not inappropriate. I question, however, whether the initial Allegro appassionato of the F minor Sonata should not move along just a little more briskly; on the evidence of this playing, Golani is essentially a serious artist who could also have brought more of a smile to the Allegretto grazioso third movement. Still, all is enjoyable and the finale has a splendid positive vigour.

I find Golani too slow in the Allegro amabile first movement of the E flat major Sonata—it is as if she has concentrated on the latter word in Brahms's marking and forgotten the former—and the Allegro appassionato that follows is also more deliberate than usual. But her playing has so much tonal beauty that this leisureliness may perhaps be excused, particularly as this work has no slow movement as such. Again, the finale has Schivung.

Joachim's work dates from 1860 and is here receiving its first recording. It's unremarkable as music (save that the lengthy theme is played just by the piano), and has a style somewhere between Schumann and Elgar plus a gipsy element (thus not unlike Brahms), but this great violinist wrote beautifully for the viola and Golani's playing of the ten longish variations is refined and expressive.

-- Gramophone [9/1992]