Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Piano Classics

Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

$37.99

Details

Composer
BRAHMS, JOHANNES
Artist
Vincenzo, Guidarini
Format
CD
Label
Piano Classics
Released
Jun 22, 2018
Catalog #
PCL10145
UPC
5029365101455

About

Crowning the very summit of the piano concerto literature are the two examples by Brahms, posing as stern a test of technique, temperament and poetic feeling to the interpreter now as they did when they were composed over a century and a half ago. The urgent, impulsive drama of the First, which propelled Brahms into international standing as a performer as well as a composer, was answered more than 20 years later by the more spaciously conceived Second, often more light-hearted in character yet making even more strenuous demands upon it's performers as a fully symphonic concerto. Those demands are met here by the Italian pianist Vincenzo Maltempo (b.1985), whose recordings of Romantic piano music have won critical superlatives. Of his debut on the label with the notoriously exacting music of Alkan, PianoNews considered Maltempo to be "one of the greatest contemporary interpreters of this composer... no other pianist as Maltempo has managed to dominate in a so well thought-out and orchestral way the enormous difficulties." According to Andrew Clements in The Guardian, the album is "Exhilarating, demonic, a real revelation." Four further albums of Alkan's music followed for the label, as well as the Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt and the 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante Op.11 of Lyapunov. As Maltempo's first concerto recording, this album is sure to be welcomed by not only his many followers but also all those listeners with their ear to the ground for modern virtuoso pianists. Here he is partnered by the Italian-based Mitteleuropa Orchestra under it's principal conductor, Marco Guidarini, who is an experienced opera conductor across Europe and the US. This album presents the live registration of both the Brahms piano concertos, as played by Vincenzo Maltempo on two consecutive nights with the Mitteleuropa Orchestra, conducted by Marco Guidarini.

Tracklist 7 tracks

  1. 1 I. Maestoso 22:30
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Maestoso
    Duration
    22:30
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  2. 2 II. Adagio 12:51
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    12:51
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  3. 3 III. Rondo: Allegro non troppo 12:18
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Rondo: Allegro non troppo
    Duration
    12:18
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  4. 4 I. Allegro non troppo 18:12
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Allegro non troppo
    Duration
    18:12
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  5. 5 II. Allegro appassionato 09:08
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Allegro appassionato
    Duration
    09:08
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  6. 6 III. Andante 12:32
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Andante
    Duration
    12:32
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini
  7. 7 IV. Allegretto grazioso 09:33
    Track
    7
    Title
    IV. Allegretto grazioso
    Duration
    09:33
    Composer
    Johannes Brahms
    Performer
    Vincenzo Maltempo
    Ensemble
    Mitteleuropa Orchestra
    Conductor
    Marco Guidarini