Brahms Klavierstücke

After a dazzling box dedicated to Debussy and greeted by a Clash of the magazine Classica, the Label The Palace of the Tasters and Boris Berman continue their collaboration and propose a new project of reference discography with the Klavierstucke of Brahms recorded at the Goillotte in Domaine de La Romanée Conti. A mythical place for a legend interpretation.

This set is a remarkable bargain, containing all of Brahms's solo piano music, including such chips from his workshop as cadenzas for other composers' concertos and a series of strictly mechanical piano studies that nobody will want to listen through. No matter. Idil Biret has a firm grasp of Brahms's idiom, and she plays with insight and passion throughout the set. Although she doesn't startle with her virtuosity, she handles the considerable technical demands of the music with great confidence.

This disc confirms Nicholas Angelich's reputation as the greatest Brahms player of his generation. The pianist's previous recordings of music by the great German Romantic, collections of solo piano music, chamber music, and the First Piano Concerto, were all magnificent, and this recording of the Second Piano Concerto with Paavo Järvi leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony plus the Klavierstücke, Op. 76, is at the same level.