JOHANNES BRAHMS - HUNGARIAN DANCES: Before the publication of his Hungarian Dances in their original version for piano four hands, Johannes Brahms was hardly known to the educated middle classes, but the works ensured that the composer became a household name. In their subsequent orchestral versions, the Dances entered the repertoire of prestigious concert orchestras and, after music had become technically reproducible, went on to become even more massively popular. On this CD, BR-KLASSIK presents Brahms' 21 Hungarian Dances in their orchestral versions, in a studio production with the Munich Radio Orchestra under it's former chief conductor Roberto Abbado. Johannes Brahms had become acquainted with Hungarian melodies and scales through the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi, with whom he had undertaken his first concert tour in 1853. His Hungarian Dances for piano four hands were composed from around 1858 onwards; the first ten were published in 1869, the others in 1880. In 1872, Brahms presented a version of the first ten dances for solo piano and in 1873 he orchestrated Dances Nos. 1, 3 and 10, premiering them in Leipzig on February 5, 1874. In his Hungarian Dances, Brahms skilfully combined various Hungarian folk song melodies with his own. The fact that the originals were, and remain, unknown to most listeners is probably what makes the compositions so appealing. His Hungarian Dances were extremely popular right from the start, and are still among his best-known works today. None other than Antonin Dvorak was responsible for the orchestrations of other dances, and popular orchestral versions were also produced by Albert Parlow, Andreas Hallen, Martin Schmeling, Paul Juon and Hans Gal.

Dvorak stated elsewhere that he had always remained a simple Bohemian folk musician at heart. Born in 1841, the son of a butcher, he grew up in the countryside. He always heard Bohemian folk tunes, probably even in his mother's womb. Folk music was clearly part of Dvorak's DNA, and a Slavic folklore tone permeates the two works on this CD. 0028948677955 CAVM4867795.2 45383021 .00 17.99 .19 CAVI-MUSIC COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/31/2025 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/27/4445227-3422550.jpg 4 1 N BALLESTRA,JEAN-LUC CARRARA: VOCI DA HEBRON Cristian Carrara is one of the most original Italian composers of his generation. The opera Voci da Hebron ('Voices from Hebron') is set during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carrara's expressive depiction of this scenario is one in which fear, anger and incomprehension sit side-by-side with the need for communication, at a time when dialogue is difficult and peace is, at times, a mirage. This land that is home to grief and misunderstanding is also a place in which love can survive and ultimately flourish. 730099060370 NXS8660603.2 45383519 .00 19.99 .21 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/10/2025 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/00/4445400-3422659.jpg 11 1 N TETZLAFF,CHRISTIAN ELGAR & ADES: VN CONS Star-violinist Christian Tetzlaff, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor John Storgards present in this album two major British violin concertos written between a century, in 1910 and 2005. Elgar's passionate violin concerto, completed in 1910, is a classical-romantic violin concerto in three movements. This huge and highly emotional work was in the wake of modernism neglected for several decades before entering into standard concerto repertoire. Here Christian Tetzlaff follows the model of the early recordings of Elgar's concerto with substantially quicker tempos compared to most modern recordings, and having a great influence on the impact of the piece. Ades' violin concerto 'Concentric Paths', is already a modern classic and no doubt one of the most important concertos written during this century. With it's very demanding violin part the work has all the elements of a true concerto, allowing the soloist to sing with his instrument. The beauty of this music lies that everything is written so clearly. 761195148020 OND1480.2 45383533 .00 18.99 .27 ONDINE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/03/2025 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/45/4445745-3422683.jpg 90 1 N LEE,WARREN GOUNOD: PNO WORKS During his time in Italy and later in Leipzig, Charles Gounod was drawn by the balance of sonic beauty and proportion to be found in the music of Palestrina and J.S. Bach. He developed an innate desire for simple directness as can be heard in the excerpt from the Messe solennelle de Sainte Cecile and the Meditation sur le premier Prelude de J.S. Bach, now better known as Ave Maria. Gounod's talents for melody and mood painting are demonstrated in his Romances sans paroles, while his sense of wit can be heard in the famous Marche fune'bre d'une marionnette. 747313453474 NXS8574534.2 45383472 .00 19.99 .16 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/10/2025 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/77/4446477-3422665.jpg 11 1 N BRIGGS,SARAH SMALL TREASURES In her first solo recording for AVIE in 2019, Sarah Beth Briggs' performances of music by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms were described as 81 minutes of pianistic Heaven" by International Piano Magazine. In her latest offering, Small Treasures, Sarah returns to two of those composers' greatest sets of miniatures: Schumann's piano cycle Waldszenen and Brahms's 4 Klavierstu�cke, Op.119, his final statement for solo piano. Alongside these, Sarah sets Schumann's much loved Arabeske from earlier in his composing career and the delightfully fleeting Impromptu by his wife Clara, together with her 4 Pie'ces fugitives, much lauded in her lifetime. The remaining 'Treasures' transport the listener to 20th-century France, comparing works by two members of Paris's composing circle 'Les Six' - Francis Poulenc's evocative 3 Novelettes (written across a 30-year time span) and Germaine Tailleferre's Sicilienne. As an encore, Sarah - a former International Mozart Competition winner - ends with a tiny gem by Wolfgang Amadeus: his 1789 Kleine Gigue in G in which light-hearted playfulness mingles with forward-looking chromaticism, miraculously seeming to find common ground with all of the works from the subsequent two centuries included on Small Treasures.

A 2023 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Chamber Performance!

Hailed by the magazine BBC Music for its ‘generous and warm-hearted, utterly beguiling playing’, the Neave Trio has emerged as one of the finest young ensembles of its generation. It has been praised by WQXR Radio in New York City for its ‘bright and radiant music making’, described by The Strad as having ‘elegant phrasing and deft control of textures’, and praised by The New York Times for its ‘excellent performances’. Here, the trio presents a program of music connected by the theme of Remembrance.

Rachmaninoff’s early first piano trio was inspired by Tchaikovsky’s trio in A minor, and shows illuminating glimpses of the mature composer to come. The elegiac mood of Rachmaninoff’s work is matched by that of Brahms’s first trio – again an early composition – which was inspired by the composer’s (unrequited) feelings for Clara Schumann.

Ravel’s only piano trio was composed in 1914, as France was being drawn into the horrors of the first world war. Ravel draws extensively on the rhythms and forms of his native Basque musical traditions, while the title of the second movement, ‘Pantoum’, refers to a form of traditional Malaysian poetry which typically deals with two separate themes in alternation, a feature to which Ravel responds with a series of contrasting themes and textures.

Brahms was 43 years old when, after a long period of maturation, his First Symphony was published. Felix Weingartner commented on it ‘taking hold like the claw of a lion’ and its urgency marked a new phase in Brahms’ musical development. The Second Symphony is traditionally seen as the pastoral element in the cycle, while the Third, with its melodic beauty, has the courage to end quietly, an act of astonishing serenity. The compelling Passacaglia finale of the Fourth Symphony represents a fitting summation to one of the greatest symphonic cycles in the classical canon. The symphonies are only available in a box not separately. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the collaboration between Ádám Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra– so it’s a ‘Silver Wedding’ recording. Fischer has called his relationship with the orchestra ‘a musical marriage’.

REVIEW:

For this set of Brahms’ four symphonies with the Danish Chamber Orchestra, the overarching idea is the use of an unusually small ensemble. One result is to favor the rhythmic structures of the symphonies, with percussion lines emerging with unusual clarity. Hear how the percussion strokes at the beginning of the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, produce a momentum that lasts through the entire symphony and even perhaps beyond. The Symphony No. 4 perhaps loses needed breadth in Fischer’s reading, especially in the finale; there is however, close attention to detail throughout. The orchestra punches above its weight. Even listeners completely unfamiliar with Fischer will get a lot out of this cycle.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Brahms composed his “Geistliches Wiegenlied” in 1863 as a wedding present for two friends of his, the famous violinist Joseph Joachim and contralto Amalie Schneeweiss. Brahms and Joachim both loved the sound of the viola, a chamber instrument that was only just developing a concert repertoire.
This Classical composition was the starting point for the programme of the present CD, which combines original works for trio from three centuries in the formation voice-viola-piano, including two specially written vocal cycles by Sarah Nemtsov and Walter Zimmermann. The programme represents a kind of musical engagement with themes that are gaining new relevance today: persecution and expulsion, homelessness and homesickness. The texts and their settings sometimes enter into an unexpected dialogue.

Violinist Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. Together with pianist Zee Zee he presents the Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Johannes Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in G, Op. 78, Sonata No. 2 in A, Op. 100, and Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108. Ning Feng believes these sonatas for piano and violin to be the crown jewels of the repertoire, stating: "Ever since I first heard them on a recording, I fell in love with them. And after performing them myself many, many times over the past 20 years, I have learned to appreciate the beauty of the lyrical melodies even more and more deeply understand the musical philosophy of this great composer.”

Benjamin Appl met Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag in 2019 and has worked with him ever since. 'He has shaped me both as a musician and as a human being, perhaps more than anyone else,' says Appl. This album alternates Romantic German lieder by Schubert and Brahms with vocal pieces by Kurtag, five of which are world premiere recordings. Kurtag himself is at the piano for two of the songs by Schubert and Brahms; while the German baritone's old and trusted friends Pierre-Laurent Aimard and James Baillieu join him for the other works in this programme, all under the artistic direction of Kurtag, ending with a fascinating recorded interview with Gyuri bacsi ('Uncle George') by Benjamin Appl, who tells us: 'My aim in this album is to give listeners a glimpse into the infinite universe of Gyorgy Kurtag, a shy procrastinator, stern self-critic, hesitant researcher, introverted questioner, unpretentious intellectual, brilliant composer and an extraordinary human being.'

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.

Funereal variations, wild or melancholic waltzes, Hungarian dances with Romani accents: this is an anthology of Brahmsian aesthetics that beautifully concludes the complete chamber music of the composer on B Records. Théo Fouchenneret and Éric Le Sage give all its colors and contrasts to the too often underestimated repertoire of the four-hand piano. Théo Fouchenneret won First Prize at the Geneva International Competition in November 2018 before being named ‘Instrumental Solo Discovery’ of the year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. The sensitivity and poetry of his touch but also the maturity of his interpretations are unanimously agreed to distinguish this young French pianist from other performers of his generation. Eric Le Sage is recognized as a musician of rare musical sensitivity, and is established as one of the leading pianists of his generation. He is a highly acclaimed performer of Robert Schumann’s piano music and of chamber music in general, and his deep interest in unknown works has earned him a catalogue of over 50 concertos.

In 19th-century Vienna (where Brahms spent much of his professional life), the practice of writing “music for the home” (which should in no way be pejoratively construed as a retreat into carefree seclusion) experienced a boom that reached as far as the imperial court of Franz Joseph I. The music-making in many Viennese households was on a par with public performances and boasted enormous variety. Special reference to this recording: on the evening of May 11, 1895, Johannes Brahms played this very CD-programme at the Vienna home of the culture-loving Fellinger family, with whom he was very well acquainted, having received from Simrock the galley proofs of the rearranged versions of the op. 120 sonatas for violin and piano. His partner for this soirée was the violin virtuoso Marie Soldat-Roeger, who was one of the eminent female musical figures of the 19th century, on a par with the likes of Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Pauline Viardot-García and others. Soldat-Roeger was the first Austrian woman to gain prominence in European concert halls. So Brahms had made just the right choice for the domestic context of this soirée, as have the two performers on this release: in making this recording, they have brought a piece of historical performance practice from the salons of the 19th century into the living rooms of our time.

Famous musical personalities are often associated with certain places: Bach with Köthen and Leipzig, Handel with Halle and London, Mozart with Salzburg and Vienna, Beethoven with Bonn and Vienna, or Brahms with Hamburg and Vienna. "And Vienna" often occurs, but "and Göttingen" almost never. Johannes Brahms is an exception. The Göttingen Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Nicholas Milton honors the great Romantic with a complete recording of his symphonies as well as the "Academic Festival Overture" based on musical material that Brahms heard for the first time in Göttingen.

Baritone Florian Boesch and pianist Malcolm Martineau continue their successful collaboration on Linn with a recital pairing two geniuses who hated each other. Exploring the rivalry between Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf, the album showcases some of their most compelling songs which express deep emotion and philosophical themes. Brahms's Vier ernste Gesange, written in memory of Clara Schumann, contrasts melancholy with transcendence, whilst lieder like Sehnsucht and Die Trauernde evoke poignant pain and unresolved longing. Wolf, in his Goethe and Michelangelo songs, captures profound existential reflections, contrasting fame with love and weaving harmonies that echo the complexities of human emotion. The album concludes with Wolf's Prometheus, a tour-de-force of maximum power befitting Florian and Malcolm, two giants of the lieder scene.

Pianist Malcolm Martineau is the brilliant initiator of this new one-of-a-kind series on Linn. The Brahms Songbook has set the unprecedented goal to record Brahms's lieder by complete opus number. In this second instalment, Malcolm is joined by star mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and bass-baritone Hanno Muller-Brachmann in five sets that were composed and published over a period of thirty years: Op. 72, Op. 105, Op. 43, Op. 48 and Op. 57. In a time when the middle-class was growing, song-writing was both lucrative and pleasurable, offering a myriad of ways to explore perennially popular topics like unrequited love. Yet, in the lieder recorded here Brahms immerses us in a heightened emotional world, distant from the drawing rooms and concert halls of the bourgeoisie.

Brahms was a spirited, fair-haired youth of twenty-one when he composed his first chamber work, essaying the delicate art of the trio for piano and strings. The result was a masterpiece. Quartets, quintets, sextets followed … and many years went by before he returned twice more to the piano trio genre. The horn too was given its own trio, with a part that could be borrowed by the cello. The maturity and life experience he had gained left their mark over the years. The time had come for wisdom, gravity and nostalgia, while the inner passion and fire remained. With this complete recording, the Trio Sora leads us on a journey along the pathways of Brahms, to encounter his very soul.

On six albums, this new release features great musical moments for all admirers of Brahms and fans of choral singing at its very best! The program leads the listener through Brahms´ essential vocal works and a splendid set or artists grant highest quality of interpretation. The recordings included are taken from the Haenssler catalog and were recorded over the course of the last few decades. Featured artists include Donna Brown, Ingeborn Danz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Lioba Braun, Gilles Cachemaille, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Kammerchor Stuttgart, and more.

SET CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op. 45 • Liebeslieder Waltzes (18), Op. 52 • Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes (15), Op. 65 • Vier Ernste Gesänge (4 Serious Songs), Op. 121 • Deutsche Volkslieder (49), WoO 33 (excerpts)

Brahms's two masterpieces for cello and piano are heard in new recordings by Emanuel Gruber and Arnon Erez. The Jerusalem Post wrote that Emanuel Gruber is "one of our great artists" citing "his extraordinary capacity for projecting the deepest meaning of the music". Awarded the Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he also won the Concert Artists' Guild Auditions early in his career. Arnon Erez has performed in major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Beethoven Halle in Bonn, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Musikverein in Vienna, Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

The award-winning East Carolina University Chamber Singers, under the direction of James Franklin, perform a nuanced musical meditation of hopeful celebration and comfort. The album represents a journey through a period of silence; isolation gives way to the sounds of voices singing.

The clarinet sonatas mark the end of Brahms’s output of chamber music and perhaps its peak. Their gentleness and tenderness combine gracefully with the twilight glow that emanates from these pieces, showing a disarming simplicity close to Mozart. The Horn Trio, on the other hand, expresses the ardor and energy of a composer in his early thirties and at the height of his artistic powers. Geoffroy Couteau moves with sovereign ease from one mood to another in these works, bringing out their vividly contrasting colors and emotions in perfect unison with his attentive partners.

Nine years after it's initial release, Arabella Steinbacher's acclaimed interpretation of two of the greatest concertos ever written for the violin is presented in an attractively priced Stereo re-issue. Steinbacher joins forces with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the baton of Charles Dutoit, one of the most eminent conductors of our age. Both the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Arabella Steinbacher, a multiple award-winner, have an extensive Pentatone discography spanning more than a decade.

If you happen to come to Frankfurt, especially in the first half of winter, please let me know. I would also come, either inviting Muhlfeld or bringing a viola part - for two clarinet sonatas that I would like Mrs. Schumann to hear. The unpretentious pieces would not disturb our comfort - but it would be nice! This is what the 61-year-old Johannes Brahms wrote to his friend, the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, on October 14, 1894. Even this brief note indicates the composer's early intention to have his two sonatas, Op. 120, performed alternatively by a wind instrument or the viola. Proving that these works are much more than 'unpretentious', Salzburg violinist and violist Thomas Albertus Irnberger, together with his long-standing piano partner Michael Korstick present a late new focus of Brahms's. The subsequent "Marchenbilder", Op. 113, by Robert Schumann mark another pinnacle of the viola-piano repertoire.

Following the first three CDs in the Bock reads Bruckner series, which were dedicated to the composer's period in Upper Austria, his existence as a perpetual bachelor on the lookout for a wife, and his veneration of Richard Wagner, this fourth of five readings with music now turns it's focus-again with a cast of readers-to the relationship between Bruckner and the sharp-tongued yet stylistically brilliant critic Eduard Hanslick. Through letters and reviews, it highlights how Hanslick's writings in the second half of the 19th century exerted a dominant influence on the entire Viennese musical world. However, six of his own songs, interwoven into the performance, also reveal him as a composer in his own right. In this fourth instalment of the series, Wolfgang Bock and Thomas Thieme, recitation, Elisabeth Wimmer, soprano, and Daniel Linton-France, piano, transport the audience into the fascinating world of Anton Bruckner in an incomparably authentic manner.

The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Johannes Brahms' Variations in B-flat major on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a, in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from February 10, 2014. The latter forms part of BR-KLASSIK's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. Brahms composed the Variations on a Theme by Haydn in Tutzing during the summer of 1873. The work was premiered on November 2, 1873 in Vienna, conducted by the composer himself. A short while later, Brahms introduced an alternative version for two pianos (Op. 56b), which premiered in 1874, also in Vienna. The Variations are based on the melody of the so-called "Chorale St. Antoni, " taken from the second movement of a Divertimento in B flat major (Hob. II:46) that was most likely mistakenly attributed to Joseph Haydn. The chorale may not even have been written by the composer of the Divertimento and could originally have been a pilgrimage song honouring St. Anthony of Padua in western Hungary (present-day Burgenland). Regardless of their origins, Brahms' Variations (theme with nine variations and finale) stand as one of the composer's most important and most celebrated orchestral works, and remain a cornerstone of the Romantic repertoire. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on February 13 and 14, 2014 ? Live recording of Johannes Brahms' famous Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a ? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal on February 10, 2014 for the Munich concerts ? Electrifying live atmosphere from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz

Chopin sans Chopin is Adam Golka's highly personal tribute to Frederic Chopin, featuring works inspired by Chopin instead of music by the master himself. The album includes a plethora of international composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, including choices inspired by Golka's Polish-American background and unique family history. The album includes a world premiere recording of the 1894 Mazurka in E minor by Natalia Janotha (1856-1932). This is Golka's fourth solo album on FHR.

Encounter brings together two towering works of contemporary chamber music that speak across cultures, histories, and inner worlds. Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind and Peteris Vasks' String Quartet No. 6 arise from profoundly different traditions-Jewish mysticism and Baltic spirituality-yet meet in a shared search for truth, memory, and transcendence. Both works are intensely personal, rooted in lived experience and belief, and animated by music's power to give voice to what lies beyond words: longing, suffering, hope, and illumination. In this recording, these worlds do not merely coexist; they listen to, reflect, and transform one another. Performed by the Arethusa Quartet with clarinetist Chen Halevi, Encounter is also a meeting of artistic journeys. Golijov's ecstatic, ritual-like score unfolds as a spiritual ascent through dreams, prayers, and blindness-understood as deeper inner vision-while Vasks' Sixth Quartet traces a life's arc from farewell and remembrance to a final, hushed encounter with transcendence, illuminated by echoes of Beethoven. Across both works, vulnerability and intensity are balanced by stillness and song, darkness by light. What emerges is an album that feels at once intimate and universal: an affirmation of shared humanity, and a reminder of music's enduring ability to connect past and present, earth and spirit, performer and listener. = Curiosa is conceived as a personal "cabinet of curiosities" by violinist Jorge Jim�nez, bringing together music that entered his life through years of travel, collaboration, and discovery. The album spans laments, dances, preludes, fugues, and songs from both renowned and anonymous sources, ranging from the Middle Ages to the Baroque and beyond. Each piece is selected for it's emotional depth, strangeness, and expressive power, forming a living repertoire shaped in rehearsals, late-night conversations, concerts, and recording sessions. Central to the project is Jim�nez's fascination with unaccompanied music and historical instruments, particularly the baroque violin and vielle, whose raw and earthy sound transports the listener into earlier sound worlds. Throughout Curiosa, Jim�nez weaves together personal heritage, musical memory, and imaginative storytelling. His own arrangements connect Bach, Dowland, Strozzi, Gaspar Sanz, and traditional tunes with vivid images. Joined by Joy Smith on early harps and Daniel Garay on historical percussion, and performing with his ensemble Tercia Realidad, Jim�nez blends historical insight with spontaneity and improvisation. The result is an album that feels both intimate and expansive-music passed "between hands, ears, and hearts," constantly transforming while remaining deeply rooted in shared curiosity and human connection. Jorge Jim�nez: "These pieces entered my life through the extraordinary musicians and ensembles I've been fortunate to work with across Europe. They form a living repertoire shaped in rehearsal rooms, late-night conversations, recording sessions, and concerts." = During the darkest of the lockdowns, I took my daughter to an open field near our home. In a time when the world felt shuttered and small, walking was our only escape from the suffocating stillness. As we reached the field, a sudden sensation washed over me-a quiet awakening. It wasn't just the spring breeze or the scent of the grass; it was a sudden reminder of what being alive meant. I felt I had been touched by Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind, sparking a renewed wish to create and perform for the world once more. Liberte�: A piece exploring and searching for emotional freedom. Zephyr: Named after the gentle west wind, this track served as the primary source of inspiration for the entire album. Fushigi no Kuni: Translating to "Wonderland" in Japanese, this piece was inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. A Troubadour in the Moonlight: A composition and improvisation depicting a minstrel serenading a loved one beneath the moon. For Misato: A heartfelt dedication to Misato-san, my dear friend who departed too young. The five songs above are composed by Yukari. Eurus, Suibokuga, Pandora's Box, Don't Follow the Piper, and Au cr�puscule are collective improvisations. = "We can imagine some eyebrows being raised at the description of Dora Pejacevic as a contemporary of Brahms; the two composers were born more than fifty years apart, and their lives only overlapped by twelve years. Yet both works by Pejacevic are unmistakably from the same compositional lineage as that by Brahms; and both are works written early on in Pejacevic's remarkable (and, sadly, all-too-short) life. Both pieces belong clearly to the romantic tradition, displaying no hint of the more modernist directions which her later works would take. We were immediately intoxicated by the passionate sweep of Pejacevic's Piano Quartet, but also the tenderness of it's slow movement, and felt it would make the perfect bedfellow for the First Piano Quartet of Brahms, a piece to which Tom has felt particularly close since student days. Brahms's Piano Quartet is justly one of the best-loved of all chamber works, and few works are more exhilarating to perform: the first movement offers an abundance of glorious themes; the second takes us to a mysterious dreamworld; the third luxuriates in expansive lyricism; then the fiery virtuosity of the gypsy finale sends us headlong to the finish line. This album brings us to the end of our recorded journey through Brahms's three piano quartets, and it has been the greatest privilege and joy to record these works, alongside three major piano quartets by composers who deserve to be far better known. However, we are pleased to say that the series does not end here: looking beyond the piano quartets, we have further albums in preparation, pairing Brahms with his brilliant and lesser-played contemporaries." -Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective

Behzod Abduraimov's performances combine great musical depth with phenomenal technique: 'He has a magical touch,' wrote The Times. This recital is yet another illustration of his many talents: it begins with variations by Carl Czerny, a pupil of Beethoven and a teacher of Liszt. Next, the famous Apr�s une lecture de Dante (whose title is borrowed from a poem by Victor Hugo) represents Liszt's Ann�e de p�lerinage en Italie (1846-1849). The title is borrowed from a poem by Victor Hugo... Another era, another poetic inspiration (Verlaine), with the Suite Bergamasque, an allusion to the festivals of the Lombard commedia dell'arte, which Debussy composed between 1890 and 1905... Still celebrating, this time in Saint Petersburg, with 'it's crowds, it's shacks and it's small traditional theatre, the character of the magician and conjurer... and the animation of the dolls, Petrushka, his rival, and the ballerina', notes Stravinsky, who in 1921 wrote a piano transcription of his ballet Petrushka, composed ten years earlier. Brahms and a peaceful Intermezzo from his Klavierst�cke Op. 119 conclude this infernal programme.

Transcribing an established piece of repertoire for a new instrument unlocks new colors and expressions the original composer may have never dreamed of. On ART OF TRANSCRIPTION, flutist Alexander Lipay explores Brahms' Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Schubert's Sonatina No. 2 in A minor, and Franck's Sonata in A major with a fresh perspective, swapping the string instruments out for the liquid, ethereal sound of the flute. Accompanied by pianist Fanya Lin, Lipay unearths exciting qualities within each piece and breathes new life into well-known notes.

This second volume of Johannes Brahms: Complete Works for Viola continues Mikhail Zemtsov's deeply personal exploration of Brahms's late chamber masterpieces, heard through the warm, human voice of the viola. Centered on works originally inspired by clarinetist Richard M�hlfeld, this album reimagines the Trio Op. 114, Quintet Op. 115, Zwei Ges�nge Op. 91, and the Scherzo from the FAE Sonata from a new sonic perspective-one that reveals an intimate, unified string sonority and an expressive depth uniquely suited to the viola. Particularly striking is Brahms's instinctive use of the viola's lowest register, drawing the listener immediately into a world of introspection, tenderness, and inward poetry. More than a scholarly project, this recording is a heartfelt artistic statement, born from Zemtsov's conviction that the viola holds a special affinity with Brahms's musical language. By pairing the instrument with kindred voices-strings, piano, and the human voice-the album invites listeners to rediscover these iconic works as profoundly vocal, homogenous, and emotionally resonant creations. As the second chapter (Volume 2) in a complete cycle commemorating Brahms's legacy, this release offers not just an alternative version of familiar masterpieces, but a compelling re-illumination of their inner soul.

Vincenzo Maltempo's considerable catalogue of recordings for Piano Classics includes a much-admired set of the two concertos by Brahms. According to Fanfare, 'Maltempo... plays with commanding technique, grand gestural sweep throughout, and real tonal bloom.' For this second volume of the composer's solo output for the piano, Maltempo has devised a compelling journey for the listener, from the noble and often heroic profile of the Ballades Op. 10 to the late and distilled collections Opp. 116-119, taking in en route the Variations on an Original Theme Op. 21 No. 1 and the eight Klavierst�cke Op. 76. In his performances, Maltempo brings out this stylistic evolution of both piano-writing and harmony, enabling us to appreciate for ourselves the degree to which Brahms continually challenged himself to enrich and experiment with his style, as well as ruthlessly exercising on himself the red pen and the sharp ear which made him so shrewd a critic of fellow composers. The scholar Denis Matthews identified three phases, or styles, in Brahms, not necessarily equating to the conventional division of early, middle, and late: the architectural, contrapuntal, and lyrical. On the surface, beyond a more intense chromaticism and openness to dissonance, there is relatively little to separate the Ballades from the late works. Much the least-often heard piece in this collection is the Variations Op. 21, and the teasing ingenuity of Brahms's treatment of his theme - initially quiet and introspective - is based on a rigorous exploration of contrapuntal possibilities. The Variations date from a period immediately after his fateful meeting with Robert and Clara Schumann in Dusseldorf, when he found himself stretched to live up to the Schumanns' extravagant praise of him as the pre-eminent successor to Beethoven. They and others were captivated by the composer's own mastery of his instrument as a performer, too, and the Op. 21 Variations show Brahms moving on from the extrovert keyboard lionism of works such as the First Concerto while still using the variation principle to celebrate virtuosity as both a composer and a pianist.

This was something I'd had in mind for a long time..." says pianist Alexandre Tharaud, "to put together an album for the sheer pleasure of it, in collaboration with dear friends and paying tribute to the wonders of the piano duet repertoire." The aptly named 4 Hands offers 18 tracks, each just a few minutes in length, each featuring Tharaud sharing a piano keyboard with a different partner. The repertoire ranges wide - from Bach to Glass by way of such composers as Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Piazzolla. 15 of Tharaud's fellow performers are celebrated pianists - among them the late Nicholas Angelich, Mariam Batsashvili, Bertrand Chamayou, David Fray, Víkingur Ólafsson, and Beatrice Rana. The other three, all stars in their musical fields, are shown in a new, pianistic light: cellist Gautier Capuçon, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and singer-songwriter Juliette. "The piano duet is one of life's miracles," continues Tharaud. "First and foremost, it is the most intimate way of playing chamber music... It was a joy to record this album... If hearing these pieces prompts people to buy some sheet music and enjoy playing duets together - just as we did in the recording studio - then I will have achieved my aim.

A musician as loved as he was admired, the pianist Nicholas Angelich died in Paris in April 2022 at the age of 51. Angelich was a modest, thoughtful man who brought tremendous integrity, depth and insight to the most demanding repertoire. His association with Warner Classics lasted some 20 years, and the label pays tribute to him with this 7CD collection of previously unreleased recordings of solo, chamber and concerto repertoire. Made either in the concert hall or for radio broadcast between 1999 and 2016, they range wide, including works by Bach, Bart�k, Beethoven Berg, Brahms, Franck, Haydn, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Zemlinsky. Appearing with Angelich are Martha Argerich, Quatuor Eb�ne, Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, and Tugan Sokhiev and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.