Johannes Brahms 24 Bit

Three musician friends meet here for a programme devoted to Brahms’s musical testaments. The 20-year-old clarinetist Raphaël Sévère, blessed with a magnificent sonority, and Adam Laloum, whose first disc was dedicated to Brahmsian twilights, together demonstrate that, in the burnished autumnal colours of these sonatas, the composer chose the clarinet to bid a melancholy farewell to the world. Victor Julien-Laferrière joins them for the elegiac Trio Op.114.

Boris Berezovsky conducts the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard in Brahms and Stravinsky during a legendary concert at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.

Originally released in 1965, this Deutsche Grammophon digital transfer sees the legendary team of the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan perform all four of Brahms's symphonies. This was their first recording of the cycle together and is a testament to their unique and extremely rich interpretations of this Romantic master's orchestral works.

This is Adam Laloum’s debut album with Sony Classical. Laloum tackles both of Brahms’s two piano concerti in this recording - a demanding task for even the most seasoned performer, and so, this record-ing stands as a testament to the confidence and abilities of the young French pianist. Laloum is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including first prize for the Clara Haskil Piano Competition in 2009 and more recently the Victoire de la Musique Classique (Instrumental Soloist of the Year) in 2017.

Intense, romantic music-making from the world’s most captivating pianist. Thrilling, deeply personal interpretations of the dark, passionate sound-worlds of both Brahms piano concertos. A unique, multi-faceted artist who continues to push creative boundaries, Grimaud is one of few pianists to conquer the monumental dimensions of the epic Op.83.

From the age of 20 onwards, Brahms wrote unceasingly for the piano. His solo pieces for the instrument, ranging from the poetic evocations of the variations Op.21 to the nostalgic yearning of Op.117, may be seen as personal journal.

'….We tackled the challenge of performing and recording without a conductor. Of course, when I otherwise perform this concerto with a conductor, I intensely learn and think through the orchestra part in my head. It is a challenge I am aware of, and I thus probably would never have had dared to perform this concerto without a conductor. But since I’ve often performed the Beethoven Concerto with the Camerata Bern without a conductor, I started thinking that the Brahms Concerto just might work as well.

In 1933, Arnold Schönberg defined ‘Brahms the Progressive’ as the initiator of a free language: ‘He was a great innovator in the area of musical language.’ This disc covers the composer’s entire life, starting with the Variations op. 9, composed at the age of just 20 years, then touching the middle period of his production with the Rhapsodies op. 79, and finishing with compositions which constitute his farewell to the piano: the Fantaisies op. 116 and the Klavierstücke op. 119, written when he was in his sixties.

The cellist Jan Vogler, who lives in New York and Dresden, has recorded three Double concertos for violin, cello and orchestra with his wife, the outstanding violinist Mira Wang, with the renowned Royal Scottish National Orchestra under direction of Peter Oundjian. Brahms' famous Double concerto captivates with wonderfully sweeping melodies, romantic sounds, eloquent solos and great orchestral sound.

This new BSO Classics release from the Boston Symphony Chamber Players pairs two delightful arrangements for chamber ensemble of charming, youthful serenades written originally for orchestra by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák.