# Brahms: Solo piano recording



## flamencosketches

What are some of your favorite recordings of Brahms' piano music? There is quite a bit of it out there on the market, but compared to, say, Beethoven or Mozart, Brahms' solo piano music has not been recorded near as much, I think.

Some recordings I hold close to my heart include Glenn Gould's excellent Brahms Intermezzi disc:









Absolutely phenomenal. Outside of Gould's admittedly unorthodox recordings, another disc I like of the late piano pieces is this Wilhelm Kempff recording:









I'm looking to explore Brahms' piano music further. I'm curious to hear of other favorites from the users here.

Side question; is anyone familiar with Idil Biret's Brahms? I've heard a few recordings of hers, including transcriptions she made herself of Brahms' symphonies and song cycles, and was impressed, but I haven't heard too too much of it. Curious.


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## wkasimer

I've been perfectly satisfied with Julius Katchen's recordings:


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## Bourdon

These Balladen,I listen very little to them,I love these recordings so much that I am carfeful not to kill it by routineus repeated listening.

Gilels made alo very good recordings.


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## Brahmsianhorn




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## flamencosketches

Interesting choices. Katchen is one I've been meaning to check out, as is Lupu. @Bourdon, that Michelangeli looks good too, I'll have to look out for it. @Brahmsianhorn, Gilels is a pianist I've been neglecting lately. I should give his Brahms recordings a shot.


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## elgar's ghost

Apart from some symphonies I don't go for multiple recordings, so the Julius Katchen set has always been enough for me. Three of the ballads are in mono but I don't find that too off-putting.


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## Bourdon

flamencosketches said:


> Interesting choices. Katchen is one I've been meaning to check out, as is Lupu. @Bourdon, that Michelangeli looks good too, I'll have to look out for it. @Brahmsianhorn, Gilels is a pianist I've been neglecting lately. I should give his Brahms recordings a shot.


Lupu,great play !


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## D Smith

I love Brahms' solo piano works and listen often. Here are some artists not mentioned so far that are frequent plays here.

Murray Perahia










Helene Grimaud










Emanuel Ax


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## flamencosketches

^Interesting that Manny Ax and Murray Perahia chose almost the exact same program for their Brahms CDs on Sony. I'm not as familiar with Ax as I am Perahia, would it be unfair to say that might each belong to the same school of understated, detail-oriented pianism? I'm not familiar with either disc but I expect both of these pianists might excel in Brahms... as would Alfred Brendel, though I'm not sure if he has ever recorded any of these works. Grimaud I'm no fan of, but maybe I haven't heard the right performances yet...


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## wkasimer

This is also an excellent collection, that includes solo music, the concerti, and chamber music, all superbly performed:


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## flamencosketches

wkasimer said:


> This is also an excellent collection, that includes solo music, the concerti, and chamber music, all superbly performed:
> 
> View attachment 123215


I don't know the pianist, but wow that's a lot of great stuff on there. I have been looking at this:









... but will have to check out that Angelich with almost the same exact repertoire as an alternative.


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## Guest

I also have the Katchen box set, and enjoy it a lot. Although not solo, the recording by James and Kathryn March of the 21 Hungarian Dances for piano, four hands on the Centaur label is also very good.

I love that Decca Radu Lupu recording as well.


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## Mandryka

flamencosketches said:


> What are some of your favorite recordings of Brahms' piano music? .


One not to overlook is Schnabel, who recorded just a couple of intermezzos very well, in my opinion some of the best things he did.

But the real important thing to say is that the game may have been changed, the bar may have been raised, by a very recent Brahms recording which you need to hear without further ado. This









Grigory Sokolov is concertising with Brahms at the moment, I plan on seeing him in Bordeaux in October. His Brahms is excellent and very original, you should be able to find examples on YouTube, if not let me know and I'll send you some.


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## Mandryka

D Smith said:


> I love Brahms' solo piano works and listen often. Here are some artists not mentioned so far that are frequent plays here.
> 
> Helene Grimaud


Yes, I agree and I much prefer it to her other (two other I think) Brahms recordings.


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## Mandryka

Brahmsianhorn said:


>


Backhaus made an extraordinary recording of the late music in the 1930s, I'm not sure what's on that CD in your picture, the one I think is special is this one


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## howlingfantods

Mandryka said:


> Grigory Sokolov is concertising with Brahms at the moment, I plan on seeing him in Bordeaux in October. His Brahms is excellent and very original, you should be able to find examples on YouTube, if not let me know and I'll send you some.


Do you have Sokolov playing opuses 118 and 119 in tolerable sound? I have 79, 116 and 117 in very listenable quality but the ones I've heard of 118 and 119 are pretty dire sound quality.

One that infuriates many critics and listeners is the Pogorelich. I love it dearly but it is one of Pogo's strangest recordings. Extreme bathos and seriously extreme tempi, and I imagine it will repel most right thinking people, but I find it just breathtaking.








A polar opposite approach I like quite a lot from Mikhail Rudy in his complete Brahms set--emotionally cooler and more extroverted than most. 








Gilels has a good Op 116 too. I imprinted on the Richard Goode version for this repertoire back in the day but the last few times I tried spinning his disc, I found it was a little too soft-grained for what I was looking for now. Same with Perahia. Lupu makes a lot of beautiful sounds but I'm not sure if I care that much about the music making.


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## flamencosketches

Wow, much to check out. I have been interested in that Pogorelich, which I have heard very mixed things about, but I love him. Others I must prioritize hearing are Schnabel (I didn't know he recorded any Brahms), Backhaus (whom I've never heard, but of course is a legend), Sokolov (who many people keep telling me to check out), Lupu, and this Volodos, of whom I'm just now hearing.


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## Mandryka

howlingfantods said:


> Do you have Sokolov playing opuses 118 and 119 in tolerable sound?


No, I'm afraid not, something will hopefully come from this latest round of concerts. Someone I know used to call Sokolov's late Brahms "Gothic " and I can kind of see what he meant.



flamencosketches said:


> Wow, much to check out. I have been interested in that Pogorelich,


It's very good I think.

What do people make of Burkhard Schliessman's Brahms? And Maria Yudina's? And Rafael Kubalek's?


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## Mandryka

I just want to say something about the late Brahms piano music. I think it's a mixed bag, and some of it I find really not my sort of thing at all because it's _hectoring_. The same problem happens in the earlier piano music too, especially some movements of the sonatas. I like Brahms, but only in parts!


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## flamencosketches

Mandryka said:


> No, I'm afraid not, something will hopefully come from this latest round of concerts. Someone I know used to call Sokolov's late Brahms "Gothic " and I can kind of see what he meant.
> 
> It's very good I think.
> 
> What do people make of Burkhard Schliessman's Brahms? And Maria Yudina's? And Rafael Kubalek's?


Yudina's Brahms is very bleak, but quite beautiful. But seriously on the bleak side. I think there is more to the late piano pieces than what she emphasizes, but it is a worthy approach.


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## Mandryka

flamencosketches said:


> Yudina's Brahms is very bleak, but quite beautiful. But seriously on the bleak side. I think there is more to the late piano pieces than what she emphasizes, but it is a worthy approach.


Did you see her notes on them? I'm sure I posted them here, but maybe not.


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## flamencosketches

Mandryka said:


> Did you see her notes on them? I'm sure I posted them here, but maybe not.


No, I haven't. Got a link?


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## Mandryka

http://math.stanford.edu/~ryzhik/brahms.html


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## howlingfantods

Mandryka said:


> What do people make of Burkhard Schliessman's Brahms? And Maria Yudina's? And Rafael Kubalek's?


Haven't heard Schliessman's or Kubalek's but have heard several of Yudina's recordings of this rep. Somehow Yudina doesn't seem very Brahmsian to me--she's forceful and declamatory when I think the music should be more intimate and hushed, overly speedy at times, and almost deliberately hard in her tone.

It almost feels to me like she's trying to rescue the music from being a sentimental wallow, which it can be at times in some pianists' hands. But it feels like an overcorrection, and I feel like she misses some essential part of what can make this music so magical.


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## flamencosketches

I listened to Pogorelich's Brahms Rhapsodies, op.79. Wow, what a performance. Very extreme rubato! A lesser talent could certainly not have pulled it off with such aplomb. For lack of better words, that must have taken some testicular fortitude to go into the studio and lay down a performance like that. It comes to no surprise that critics hated it. 

Anyway, I ordered the CD right away. Looking forward to hearing more. 

Sokolov I'm having trouble finding in halfway decent sound. This has been my problem with recommendations of his in the past. It appears he has recorded the Ballades and the 3rd sonata for some label or another, does anyone have the CD? I'll buy it blind if someone wants to convince me to.


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## flamencosketches

Mandryka said:


> http://math.stanford.edu/~ryzhik/brahms.html


Ms. Yudina did not write this herself, did she? If so, this is a rare gold mine of musical insight. Very eloquently written. Thanks.


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## Guest

I have the famous Katchen set, but it serves as a backstop, so I know I have all of Brahms solo piano music. I end up listening to individual discs, Stephen Hough (ballades) recently.


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## premont

Mandryka said:


> I just want to say something about the late Brahms piano music. I think it's a mixed bag, and some of it I find really not my sort of thing at all because it's _hectoring_. The same problem happens in the earlier piano music too, especially some movements of the sonatas. I like Brahms, but only in parts!


English isn't my first tongue, so I have some problems with your use of the word hectoring - at least in this context. Would you mind to elaborate a little bit?


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## flamencosketches

premont said:


> English isn't my first tongue, so I have some problems with your use of the word hectoring - at least in this context. Would you mind to elaborate a little bit?


English is my first language, and I have no idea what he was trying to say there.


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## Mandryka

premont said:


> English isn't my first tongue, so I have some problems with your use of the word hectoring - at least in this context. Would you mind to elaborate a little bit?


Insistent browbeating. This is an example






and this






or this (sorry about the sound, it's the only example I can find with just the fugue)


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## howlingfantods

flamencosketches said:


> Sokolov I'm having trouble finding in halfway decent sound. This has been my problem with recommendations of his in the past. It appears he has recorded the Ballades and the 3rd sonata for some label or another, does anyone have the CD? I'll buy it blind if someone wants to convince me to.


Sent you a PM. I'm not much of a fan of the Ballades or the sonatas, so I'm not the one to speak to the merits of that CD; as is often the case with Sokolov, much of his best stuff is from fan-recorded tapes. What I have is pretty good audio quality for op. 79, 116, and 117, and some wretched audio quality performances of op. 118 and 119--those are the ones he's been performing this year so my hopes are high that some audience member gets it in slightly better sound at some point.


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## Mandryka

What do you make of his Chopin mazurkas? I heard him play a lot of them in concert and really felt bored, it was when he was touring with the Hammerklavier a few years ago. But recently I've been rather seduced by what he does


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## Mandryka

This piece by Chopin always makes me think of late Brahms. Very interesting performance by Pogorelich here which I hadn't heard before, with decent sound.


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## howlingfantods

Funny enough, my favorite collection of mazurkas is the bits and pieces of Sokolov's that I've managed to find, and my favorite preludes are Pogos. There's sort of a sensuality to Sokolov's mazurkas that's very unique in these mazurkas. He uses much rubato but in a different way than the romantic and virtuosi from the early 20th century did.

Pogo actually released a performance of that op. 45 prelude commercially, not as part of his preludes disc but as one of the fillers for his second sonata disc.









That cover is literal and accurate by the way. There is really only one prelude, one scherzo and one nocturne, plus a few etudes.

I agree--I hear some Chopin in late Brahms, notwithstanding the general belief that Brahms mostly wasn't influenced by Chopin. It does make me think sometimes what an older Chopin would have been like, had he not died so young.


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## flamencosketches

Wow, Sokolov really is great in Brahms. Listening to op.116 now. I don't think I've ever heard these pieces played with such an intense sense of drama and mystery. Mandryka, I have just become extremely jealous of you. Enjoy seeing Mr. Sokolov in Bordeaux. Drink some wine for me. @howlingfantods, thanks for putting me on to some good stuff.


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## Brahmsian Colors

For me, Helene Grimaud offers wonderful sensitivity and beauty to Brahms' Intermezzos. I also find Van Cliburn's performances of the Intermezzos very fine.


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## RobertJTh

flamencosketches said:


> What are some of your favorite recordings of Brahms' piano music?


As for the complete traversals, Kätchen has already been mentioned, but I found this one very worthwhile too. (I guess it goes around in this form now, I've got the individual Eurodisk cd's)


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## Brahmsian Colors

A recent re-listening to Wilhelm Kempff's early 1960s performances of Brahms' final piano pieces opened my ears anew to the wonderful sense of openness, flow and elegance he had brought to bear. Along with Helene Grimaud's renditions, Kempff's give me the most satisfaction in these captivating gems.


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## Josquin13

Here's a list of my 20+ favorite recordings of Brahms solo piano works over the past several decades (which includes two boxed set surveys--from pianists Julius Katchen--analogue, & Andrea Bonatta--digital): I'll start with my top picks or desert island favorites from the stereo era:

I. My desert Island Brahms:

1. Dmitri Bashkirov: his Harmonia Mundi disc of selected works. If I were pressed to pick the best CD of Brahms solo piano works that I've ever heard, this would come to mind (while Michelangeli & Richter below would be my next choices). For me, Bashkirov, who recently passed away, is one of the most underrated Brahms players of the recorded era. It's an opinion that I base solely on this single HM recording:

--Brahms, Intermezzo, No. 6, Op. 118:






https://www.amazon.com/DIMITRI-BASH...+Brahms&qid=1632676313&s=music&sr=1-1-catcorr

2. Four Ballades: played by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. For me, Michelangeli was at his very best in these early Brahms works. Although I don't like the original-image bit-processing DG remaster all that much. The recording sounded more beautiful on LP, with a more ample piano resonance & warmth. However, there was an Shm-CD issued in Japan at one point, which was a little better, sound-wise. (It could also be partly a stereo dependent issue.) Otherwise, I'd recommend the original DG CD, if you can find it, or better yet, the Eloquence AMSI remaster of two of the four Ballades (which has the warmth & resonance of my old DG LP), or the Steinway & Sons Michelangeli release. Admittedly, I'm finicky about these things when it comes to my most treasured recordings, & others may feel differently.

Interestingly, I once knew a harpsichordist/pianist who had studied with a student of Michelangeli's in London, and he told me that his teacher told him that Michelangeli had learned & played through all of Brahms solo piano works in preparation for this recording. This labor intensive approach shows in the depth of insight that Michelangeli brings to this music, IMO, & especially in the final, fourth Ballade. However, if that's the way Michelangeli normally worked, no wonder he made so few recordings.

--Ballade No. 4:





--DG: 



--Live at Lugano, 1973: 



--Live at Lugano, 1981 (the full concert): the Brahms begins at 25:34 into the concert & the performance is nearly as good as the DG studio recording: 



. If memory serves, one of Michelangeli's Lugano performances was released by the Aura label on CD, but I've forgotten which one it was: Here's a link to the CD: https://www.amazon.com/Arturo-Bened...+brahms&qid=1633043771&s=music&sr=1-2-catcorr

Alternatives: While Michelangeli is my first choice in the Four Ballades, I've also liked Emil Gilels, Bruce Hungerford, Arthur Rubinstein, Ivo Janssen, and Antonin Kubalek in these works.

--Emil Gilels, Four Ballades: 
DG studio: 



Live in concert: 



--Bruce Hungerford (who studied with Carl Friedberg, who was a pupil of Clara Schumann's & a friend of Brahms): 



--Arthur Rubinstein: 



--Ivo Janssen, Four Ballades: 




3. Sviatoslav Richter: Op. 119, live in Kiev in 1965 (or likely anywhere else). Richter had a very special affinity for Brahms & it particularly shows in these four pieces:






4. Emil Gilels, Fantasien, Op. 116:





II. Other favorite Brahms recordings (which I'd also take with me to my desert island, if there was room...):

5. Rudolph Serkin, Op. 119 (live 1975): 



. Serkin was another wonderful Brahms player, & different from Richter, interpretatively.

6. Edith-Picht Axenfeld: Her last concert, which she played on a piano & not a harpsichord, for which she was better known. IMO, Axenfeld was an underrated pianist. Granted, she was frail and elderly when she gave her last recital, & the listener must make small allowances for this, perhaps, but her Brahms playing is remarkably beautiful & I treasure this recital:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/edith-picht-axenfelds-last-piano-concert-mw0001846157
https://www.amazon.com/Edith-Picht-Axenfeld-Last-Piano-Concert/dp/B0000649N6

7. Dmitri Alexeev: Late Piano Music, on EMI double fforte. IMO, Alexeev is another underrated Brahms player. For me, he is every bit in the same league with Katchen & Lupu in the late works, if not better:

Op.76: 



Op. 116: 



Op. 117: 



Op. 118: Not on You Tube.
Op. 119: 




8 & 9. I'm going to clump Ivo Pogorelich's single DG Brahms recording together with Valery Afanassiev's solo Brahms series for the Denon label, because it took me awhile to fully appreciate both pianists in this music, and for the same reason: which is that they can slow down considerably in this music. Yet, both pianists find an autumnal warmth in Brahms that is very beautiful. I should mention that I first heard Afanassiev play this music in an all Brahms recital of the Late Piano Works in NYC, and I could have sat there all night. It was wonderful. However, when I later bought his Denon releases of the same music, surprisingly, I found his Brahms much too slow. Which shows how differently music can be perceived and understood at a live recital versus listening at home. Though eventually I came around to enjoying his slower tempi on the Denon CDs. Strangely, with Pogorelich, it was the opposite. I found his Brahms interminably slow both in concert & on his DG CD, when I first heard it. So slow that, in concert, I thought the music was going to come to a complete stop at times. But as with many of Pogorelich's other recordings, over the years, with repeated exposure, he has won me over to his point of view. & now I treasure his Brahms, and Afanassiev's, too. So much so, that it's now hard to go back to pianists that play this music relatively fast & hard, like Wilhelm Backhaus on Decca, for example.

--Pogorelich: 



--Afanassiev:
Op. 118: 



Op. 117: 



Op. 119: 




10. Julius Katchen (survey): 



. Still the 'classic' survey, after many decades.

11. Radu Lupu--all of his Brahms recordings for Decca, including his performance of the Op. 18b Theme & Variations from of the second movement of Op. 18 String Sextet: 



, as well as the late piano works: 



.

12. Elisabeth Leonskaja, playing the Late Piano Works. Leonskaja has the great advantage (over Katchen & Lupu) of a DSD hybrid SACD recording by the MDG label. & this is an equally beautiful record, performance-wise, IMO:

Op. 117: 



Op. 116, No. 2: 




13. Luba Edlina: playing just the Intermezzi, on Chandos. Here she is playing four intermezzi from the Op. 118 set: 




14. Glenn Gould: 10 Intermezzi: 



 (and later Gould's Four Ballades for CBS, which I've grown to like, too: 



).

15. Augustin Anievas: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, and Variations on a Theme by Paganini: 



.

16. Arthur Rubinstein:
--"The Brahms I love": 




17. Nelson Freire: Piano Sonata No. 3, & various late pieces: 




18. Tamas Vasary:
--Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21, no. 1: 



--Schumann Variations: 



--Handel Variations: 




19. Andrea Bonatta (survey):
Op. 76: 



Op. 35, 76, 79: 



Piano Sonata No. 1: 



Op. 116: 



Op. 118: 



Op. 119: 



Etc.

Bonatta has also written a well regarded book on playing Brahms' piano music.

20. Antonin Kubalek:
--Scherzo, Op. 4: 



--Four Ballades: 



Op. 118: 




III. Here are some other fine Brahms pianists in my collection, all of whom have a special affinity for Brahms' music, in my estimation: Krystian Zimerman, Helene Grimaud, Bruno-Leonardo Gelber, Van Cliburn, Nicholas Angelich, Mikola Suk, Mikhail Rudy, & Emmanuel Ax.

Krystian Zimerman:
--Op. 18b: 



--Bach Chaconne transcription by Brahms: 



--Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1: 



--Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5: 



ETC.

--Mikola Suk: 10 Intermezzi: 




--Nicholas Angelich: Op. 116-119: 




--Helene Grimaud (who takes a more classical view of Brahms): 
Erato:
Op. 117: 



Op. 119: 



Denon: Piano Sonata No. 2: 




IV. From the Mono era:

Last, but not least, among historical recordings, I've most liked Carl Friedberg (who, as noted above, studied with Clara Schumann & was a close friend of Brahms--though bear in mind that Friedberg was quite old when he made his recordings), Solomon, Etelka Freund, Wilhelm Backhaus, Benno Moiseiwitsch, & Rudolf Serkin in Brahms. I'd likewise take most of these recordings with me to my desert island,

--Friedberg, Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 1: 



--Friedberg, Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 3: 



--Friedberg, Intermezzo, Op. 76, No. 3: 



--Friedberg, Intermezzo, Op. 119, No. 3: 



Etc.
https://arbiterrecords.org/catalog/brahms-recaptured-by-pupils-and-colleagues/

--Solomon, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 (1942 HMV): 



--Solomon, Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2: 



--Solomon, Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 6: 



--Solomon, Piano Sonata No. 3: 




--Freund (who was a student of Ferruccio Busoni and also worked with Brahms during her formative years): Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2: 



--Freund, Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 6: 



Etc.

--Moiseiwitsch, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 (1930): 



--Moiseiwitsch, Op. 119, Nos. 3 & 4: 



--Backhaus, Op. 118 (1932): 



--Serkin, Handel Variations, live at Lugano (1957):


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