|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2CD
|
|
ARB 163CD
|
Recorded 1889-1959. First publication of recently discovered lost recordings! For too long, Brahms has been damaged as a sacred cow mounted on a pedestal. Arbiter's newly discovered live and private performances allows all to closely approach Brahms, including a funky improvisation by the composer himself from 1889 -- witness a style more Harlem than Hapsburg. Nearly all the musicians heard here were in contact with Brahms and play his works as new music; jazzy, as if created on the spot. His lost language is fully revealed here for the first time through their sounds and words. Brahms's pupil Carl Friedberg, who appears here, even taught Nina Simone, who carried on their tradition. Extensive recorded excerpts from Friedberg's lessons to Bruce Hungerford are accessible on Arbiter's website; a duo performance by Friedberg and Hungerford is included here. Performers include pianists Johannes Brahms, Carl Friedberg, Edith Heymann, Marie Baumayer, Ilona Eibenschütz, and Etelka Freund; and the Trio of New York with Friedberg, piano; Danil Karpilovsky, violin; and Felix Salmond, cello. Composers include Brahms, Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, Bach, and Bartók.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
ARB 103CD
|
1996 release. A tireless teacher and performer who hated practicing piano, Walter Gieseking was recorded playing most of the piano's major works. Unlike the marathon studio sessions, his few and rare live appearances have a different character, a spontaneity and fire that the studio inhibited. Arbiter found a war trophy: two movements of a Brahms piano concerto from Berlin in 1944. A year later, when Germany was defeated, the Red Army seized Berlin radio's contents (including the furniture) and spirited all off to Moscow, where it languished until perestroika effected the return of all acknowledged stolen property; Arbiter was the first to notice its return. Gieseking's Brahms is a welcome relief from the sanctimony plaguing his music nowadays! This CD includes recordings from 1939-1956. These recordings of the Piano Concerto No.2 in B-Flat, Op. 83, feature Robert Heger and the Berlin Philharmonic.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
ARB 121CD
|
2001 release. A legend in his time and ours, pianist Artur Schnabel epitomized the height of Beethoven playing and continues to influence all who come in contact with his complete cycle of the piano sonatas and concertos. Throughout his life Schnabel actively played chamber music, and Arbiter's discovery of previously unpublished 1947 concert recordings reveals a side never captured in the formality of studio performances. These recordings capture Schnabel performing Brahms with violinist Joseph Szigeti and cellist Pierre Fournier, an ensemble that Schnabel raved about in his private correspondence.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
NEOS 30803CD
|
2008 release. This version of the "Requiem" is a kind of time travel -- we return to the very roots of the work. Brahms not only made a piano reduction of the orchestral score, but an arrangement for four hands, too. And the piano remains the musical point of departure as well as the compositional cell of the work. The sounds reproduced here represent a reconstruction of the original form that "Ein deutsches Requiem" (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms took before its triumphal march through the symphonic choral literature. The score was reworked by the composer Heinrich Poos (born in 1928), who is mainly known for his vocal music and who was Professor of Music Theory in Berlin for many years. By distributing the orchestral music between two pianos and adding timpani that function as a kind of orchestral pulse, Poos allows us a glimpse into the compositional workshop of Johannes Brahms and helps us understand the working processes that led to the "German Requiem." The workshop nature of this arrangement is an authentic one, both historically and in terms of instrumentation: the pianos used are original instruments from the considerable collection belonging to the West German Radio (WDR). The Erard grand was built in 1839 in Paris; the Collard grand dates from 1849 and has a London provenance. The kettle drums are historical instruments, too, manufactured and played during Brahms' own lifetime. Performed by the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, Simone Nold (soprano), Kay Stiefermann (baritone), Ian Pace and Mark Knoop (piano), Peter Stracke (kettle drums), Rupert Huber (conductor).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD/SACD
|
|
NEOS 30804CD
|
Featured works: "Liebeslieder," 18 waltzes for chorus and piano four hands, Op. 52 (1868/69); "Walzer," 16 waltzes for piano four hands, Op. 39 (1865); "Neue Liebeslieder," 15 waltzes for chorus and piano four hands, Op. 65 (1874/75). Performed by GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln/Rupert Huber. "The present interpretation fulfills in a special way Brahms' desire to produce a work that unites music not far removed from folk origins with formal ingenuity. The conductor, the singers and the pianists lend this recording a remarkable authenticity, their music-making pointed up by the declamatory phrasing and articulation of the waltz: its melodic gesture is underlined by the traditional acceleration and holding back of tempo, something that lends the internal structure meaningful form and which helps the piece divest itself of any tub-thumping amateurism. A most apposite sound world is conjured up too by the generous but transparent colors of the historic Erard grand, built in 1839 and one of the many still playable keyboard instruments belonging to the piano collection of the WDR. It is these components that most convincingly demonstrates the claim by Brahms on music that 'is eternal,' the present performance confirming these waltzes -- pieces which are cast of course in a small form -- as character pieces, elevating them on occasion to the status of works which hold up a mirror to the soul." Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.
|