Composer: Johannes Brahms
Performer: Alexandre Kantorow
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2600
Release: 2021
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
01. No. 1, Andante – Poco più moto – Allegro
02. No. 2, Andante – Allegro non troppo
03. No. 3, Intermezzo
04. No. 4, Andante con moto – Più lento
Studies, Anh.1a / 1: Chaconne von JS Bach
05. I. Allegro maestoso
06. II. Andante espressivo
07. III. Scherzo
08. IV. Intermezzo (Rückblick)
09. V. Finale
Brahms: Ballades, Op. 10
10. No. 5, Chaconne von J.S. Bach (After J.S. Bach’s BWV 1004)
In 2019, when Alexandre Kantorow, at the age of 22, became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky competition, his programme included no less than three works by Johannes Brahms. Two of these, Piano Sonata No. 2 and the Rhapsody in B Minor, he went on to record for release on his previous, highly praised recital programme, which was awarded distinctions. The Brahms interpretations won Kantorow particular praise – the Guardian (UK) described them as “magisterial” while the website ResMusica placed his sonata “among the great reference recordings of the piece – if not the modern one”.
There is much to look forward to, then, when Kantorow releases an all-Brahms album with a playing time of no less than 85 minutes. He opens with music by a composer of a similar age as himself: Brahms wrote the Four Ballades in 1854 while only 21 years old, taking up a fashionable genre introduced by Chopin as late as 1840. The set is followed by the even earlier Sonata No. 3 in F minor which forms the centre of the programme.
The sonata is of almost symphonic dimensions and it was indeed, along with its predecessors, famously described as a disguised symphony by no one less than Robert Schumann. To bring this stormy, impassioned album to a close, Kantorow has chosen a later, and contrasting work: with a lifelong admiration for Bach, Brahms in 1879 made a piano arrangement, for the left hand alone, of the iconic Chaconne from Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin – a composition that Brahms himself described as “a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful impressions”.