|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|