# Brahms piano



## Sonata

Give me your favorite solo piano Brahms recordings!


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## Vaneyes

Sokolov - Piano Sonata 3, Ballades
Lupu - Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Piano Pieces, Opp. 117 - 119
Angelich - Piano Pieces, Opp. 116 - 119
Grimaud - Piano Pieces, Opp. 116 - 119
Gould - Piano Works
Pogorelich - Piano Works
Kovacevich - Ballades, 8 Pieces, Op. 76


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## Ukko

Lupu, Op. 79 and all the late pieces.


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## clavichorder

Gilels, op 10 ballades. They are weirdly sparse pieces, and the music has to be dragged out of them, but there is good music in there, otherwise performances like this wouldn't be so powerful. I don't know if his performances of them are featured on any CD, but I've been very fond his these performances that I found on youtube for some time. Here is a link to the op. 10 no. 3,


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## Andreas

The Ballads and a selection of Intermezzi by Gould, and opp. 116-119 by Kempff.


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## peeyaj

In my opinion, Brahms is not a great composer for the *solo *piano. (compared to Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert and Schumann and Liszt!)


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## Lisztian

peeyaj said:


> In my opinion, Brahms is not a great composer for the *solo *piano. (compared to Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert and Schumann and Liszt!)


I somewhat agree, although more in regards to a lack of quantity. Brahms' collections of short piano works are, IMO, up there with those of the names you list. I'm not huge on his piano sonatas, but I do love the third one, which I think is a masterpiece - although not up there with the best ones of Schubert, and the Liszt.


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## Sonata

peeyaj said:


> In my opinion, Brahms is not a great composer for the *solo *piano. (compared to Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert and Schumann and Liszt!)


I understand. I'm not personally crazy for Schumann's solo piano from what I've heard, but I have been building a collection of music from the others. But as Brahms is my favorite composer, I'd like to have at least a bit from all of his genres of work.


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## Ukko

Sonata said:


> I understand. I'm not personally crazy for Schumann's solo piano from what I've heard, but I have been building a collection of music from the others. But as Brahms is my favorite composer, I'd like to have at least a bit from all of his genres of work.


You're "not crazy for Schumann's solo piano". But, you see, it benefits one's appreciation greatly if one _is_ 'a little bit crazy', as (in common parlance) Schumann was. Which is why his music works so well for me.

Late Brahms, performed 'thoughtfully and with life's fires banked', also works very well for me, and did so well before the ashes covered the coals.


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## pjang23

Gilels Op.116


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## moody

I must say that I am somewhat surprised to read that anyone could doubt Brahms' prowess as a composer for the piano,he is terrific and particularly for "big" pianists.
julius Katchen,the highly gifted American virtuoso,was recording the complete Brahms works when he died of cancer at the age of only 42.
I note that they have now been reissued by British Decca and at a bargain price.

My favourites:
Sonata in C maj. op.1 Julius Katchen
" in F Sharp Minor,Op.2 "
" in F Minor,Op.5 Shura Cherkassky, "Live",1969.
" " Clifford Curzon.
Schumann said of Brahms, "A player of genius who can make an orchestra of the piano".

Schumann Variations,Op.9. 
Variations On an Original Theme,op21/1 Julius Katchen.
Variations On a Hungarian Song,op21/2

Variations and Fugue On a theme of Handel,Op 24. Leon Fleisher.
Waltzes,Op.39.

Variations and Fugue On a Theme of Handel. Jorge Bolet.

" " " Julius Katchen
Variations On a Theme by Paganini, op.39. "

Intermezzi,Op.117, Piano Pieces,Op118 and op 119. Julius Katchen.

Piano pieces,op.76, Fantasies,Op.116. Piano pieces,Op 118 and op 119,Rhapsodies,Op.79,1 and 2. Walter Gieseking.


And don't forget his Hungarian dances for piano duet.


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## Vaneyes

Sonata said:


> I understand. I'm not personally crazy for Schumann's solo piano from what I've heard, but I have been building a collection of music from the others. But as Brahms is my favorite composer, I'd like to have at least a bit from all of his genres of work.


Maybe something from these will please.

View attachment 9722
View attachment 9723
View attachment 9724


Apologies to the thread for briefly going OT.


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## Wandering

This was my first disc of Brahms' piano music.


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## elgar's ghost

I have the Katchen set and I have never felt the need to supplement it with any others.


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## perduto

My favorite Lupu was joined recently by Leonskaja. There is beautiful sadness in her MDG recording, played on a 1903 Steinway.


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## Ukko

elgars ghost said:


> I have the Katchen set and I have never felt the need to supplement it with any others.


I also have the set. I like his early and middle Brahms (the Op. 1 works very well), but usually prefer a bit more 'resignation' in the late works. I say 'usually', because sometimes Katchen's _cut the crap_ approach is refreshing. It reminds me of Weissenberg's approach to Chopin.


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## elgar's ghost

Hilltroll72 said:


> I also have the set. I like his early and middle Brahms (the Op. 1 works very well), but usually prefer a bit more 'resignation' in the late works. I say 'usually', because sometimes Katchen's _cut the crap_ approach is refreshing. It reminds me of Weissenberg's approach to Chopin.


I'd be interested if you could recommend a recording of ops. 116-119? Because of their time-line I've thought of these as a stand-alone group of works at times.


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## Ukko

elgars ghost said:


> I'd be interested if you could recommend a recording of ops. 116-119? Because of their time-line I've thought of these as a stand-alone group of works at times.


Lupu does 'thoughtfully resigned' very well. I like his way with late Brahms much better than his late Schubert. Rubinstein was good in Brahms, period.


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## moody

elgars ghost said:


> I'd be interested if you could recommend a recording of ops. 116-119? Because of their time-line I've thought of these as a stand-alone group of works at times.


The op117,118,119 plus the Op.4 Scherzo appear on an Idil Biret Naxos CD.
She is the star in their crown,she studied with Cortot,Wilhelm Kempf and Nadia Boulanger.
I've just listened to the disc and it is very good


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## elgar's ghost

Thanks to you both.


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## peeyaj

To clarify my early post:

Brahms solo piano works are like orchestral works written for the piano.. They have that "orchestral" sound and shows Brahms as an orchestrator . It's muddy in my ears. He doesn't have the "personal" touch like Chopin and Schubert have. I enjoy him in small doses nonetheless.


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## clavichorder

Not speaking specifically about any recording, but I am realizing more and more that there is not a single Brahms piano piece that moves me more than the finale of his 3rd sonata. Its a very early work, but as I said in another thread, "it covers tremendous emotional territory but with the gruffest of Brahmsian style." I love the way it sounds on a very deep level, its just so gooood.


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## joen_cph

Except from the piano concertos, it is not a field that I feel that much connected to, but the *early Kempff* mono set on Artone 4CD is the one that made me re-consider:









Somehow he adds a particular emotional - flowingly Schumannesque ? - quality to the works that I like. The set doesn´t include the sonatas or the great variation works though.










I have also got the Katchen complete set, some Gould, Yudina (late pieces), Dmitri Alexeev, Malcolm Frager, Bolet, Klien and a bit of Richter, Horowitz & Schnabel.


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## Ukko

^ /\ Yudina's late Brahms... haven't heard that. Care to pass on impressions? I can _almost_ 'hear' where she could have gone with the music.


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## joen_cph

-> Concerning *Yudina*, there are _7 selected late Intermezzi_ on this Eurodisc 4+4 LP compilation,









According to the notes, they were recorded in 1953 but the sound is surprisingly good. Her style there is quite airy there and relatively lyrically restrained, as opposed to the almost excessive _Sonata_ 3 and _Rhapsody in g_ on you-t, which have a more rugged sound too (I still have´t heard them in depth though): 



 ,





Some _intermezzi_ recordings can be heard on you-t - albeit in poorer sound. They include some not in the Eurodisc set. 
The most eccentric and outgoing is probably




 ,
another one is 




An unusually interesting - if rather meandering - article by Yudina herself on the Intermezzi  (dated 1969 but corresponding to those selected pieces of the Eurodisc set) and including the literary subjects of folk-song themes etc. in the music, can be found here: http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~ryzhik/brahms.html

It shows that she definitely knew her classics ...

Her _Händel variations_ seem to be interesting and playful at times, 



 , unfortunately with rather poor sound.

EDIT: It turns out that she recorded the intermezzi from 1952-1968, which explains the good sound of some of them; the Eurodisc LP only says 1953 but it is thus not entirely correct. 
The years of the recordings can be found at the reasonable Yudina discography here:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.music.classical.recordings/2006-05/msg06421.html


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## Webernite

Just me, but I buy a modern recording when first getting to know a piece. This is a good disc:


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## Ukko

Webernite said:


> Just me, but I buy a modern recording when first getting to know a piece. This is a good disc:
> 
> View attachment 10485




If you had just mentioned 'Perahia', you would have saved me a click.


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## JACE

I've been on a Brahms solo piano music kick lately, so I decided to revive this old thread.

As of today, these are my favorites. The _crème de la crème_ (imho) are in bold.

- Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1 - Richter
- Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 2 - Katchen
- Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5 - *Laplante*, *Rubinstein*
- Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9 - Katchen, Osorio
- Ballades, Op. 10 - *Rubinstein*, *Michelangeli*
- Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 - Serkin, Perahia, Katchen
- Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35 - Katchen
- Eight Pieces, Op. 76 - *Goode*, *Alexeev*
- Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79 - Laplante, Perahia
- Seven Fantasias, Op. 116 - *Alexeev*, Goode
- Three Intermezzi, Op. 117 - *Alexeev*
- Six Pieces, Op. 118 - *Alexeev*, Perahia
- Four Pieces, Op. 119 - *Alexeev*, Goode

I know that Kempff's and Lupu's recordings are highly regarded -- particularly in the late works -- but, for whatever reason, they've never appealed to me as much as Alexeev and Goode.

I've also been eyeing this:










*Brahms: Complete Piano Sonatas / François-Frédéric Guy (Evidence, 2016)*

So far, I've only heard samples. Does anyone have it? . . . Incidentally, I think Guy's Liszt is tremendous. I've also been very impressed by what I've heard of his Beethoven.


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## Animal the Drummer

Walter Klien did a wonderful miscellaneous Brahms recital on Turnabout many years ago. I still play the LP from time to time and wish he'd recorded more Brahms.


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## Guest

JACE said:


> I've also been eyeing this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Brahms: Complete Piano Sonatas / François-Frédéric Guy (Evidence, 2016)*
> 
> So far, I've only heard samples. Does anyone have it? . . . Incidentally, I think Guy's Liszt is tremendous. I've also been very impressed by what I've heard of his Beethoven.


Yes, I like it very much. Passionate playing and excellent sound.


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## JACE

Kontrapunctus said:


> Yes, I like it very much. Passionate playing and excellent sound.


Thanks Kontrapunctus!

Another item for the "To Get List."


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## hpowders

Artur Rubinstein: The Brahms I Love.


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## Pugg

JACE said:


> Thanks Kontrapunctus!
> 
> Another item for the "To Get List."


Your list grows as fast as mine.


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## tdc

I really enjoy Brahms solo piano music. Performers I enjoy include Jando, Kovacevich and Kempff. I've recently been listening to Kempff play the Op. 76 pieces, beautiful.


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## Bettina

Why is Richter being almost completely neglected in this thread? His recording of Brahms' Piano Sonatas 1 and 2 is excellent. He is my favorite performer for those works (and also for Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2).


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## lextune

Richter's recording of Brahms 1st is as close to perfect as one can ever hope to hear.

Katchen is stupendous in all the great variation sets.

Lupu, Sokolov, and Schiff are winners in all their Brahms recordings.


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## hpowders

Julius Katchen would be my first choice for Brahms piano works.


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## Heliogabo

To me, this is the best Brahms piano album ever:


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## tdc

I'm listening to Lupu play Brahms op. 117 right now. There seems to be a touch more reverb on the piano than I like on this recording, but the playing itself is very good indeed. 

Thanks for the recommendations: Bettina, hpowders, lextune and Heliogabo.


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## Guest

Has anyone heard this Pentatone SACD? It gets good reviews.










EDIT: I can answer my own question since I just bought it (hi-res download)--it's wonderful!


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## musix

i love this one, simple, clear, relaxing...


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## Guest

Everything of Brahms that Hélène Grimaud recorded.


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## hpowders

Funny how we are so different. I can't stand Grimaud. I find her performances to be fussy and mannered.

However, I do like the symmetry of those opposing accent marks.


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## Pugg

musix said:


> i love this one, simple, clear, relaxing...


You are a romantic, welcome to Talk Classical by the way.


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