Brahms: Works for Solo Piano Volume 4

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Plowright’s Brahms could easily be described as rugged: thunderclouds often loom and there are few moments of brighter outlook along the way…dark Brahms, then, but Plowright’s powerful, uncompromising... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 3rd Mar 2017
Catalogue No: BIS2137
Label: BIS
Series: Brahms: Works for Solo Piano
Length: 81 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

April 2017

Editor's Choice

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Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini in A minor, Op. 35: Book 1

Work length14:24

$15.00

$19.50

$26.25

Jonathan Plowright
Recorded: January 2016
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk, England

Theme

Track length0:31

$1.00

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Var. 1

Track length0:28

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Var. 2

Track length0:31

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Var. 3

Track length0:34

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Var. 4

Track length1:20

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Var. 5

Track length0:48

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Var. 6

Track length0:31

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Var. 7

Track length0:27

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Var. 8

Track length0:27

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Var. 9

Track length1:27

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Var. 10

Track length1:19

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Var. 11

Track length1:30

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Var. 12

Track length1:34

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Var. 13

Track length0:34

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Var. 14

Track length2:23

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Brahms: Ballades (4), Op. 10

Work length24:58

$4.50

$6.50

$8.75

Jonathan Plowright
Recorded: January 2016
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk, England

No. 1 in D Minor "Edward"

Track length4:53

$1.00

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No. 2 in D Major

Track length6:22

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No. 3 in B Minor

Track length4:04

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No. 4 in B Major

Track length9:39

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

Brahms: Rhapsodies (2), Op. 79

Work length14:44

$2.50

$3.90

$5.25

Jonathan Plowright
Recorded: January 2016
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk, England

No. 1 in B Minor

Track length8:43

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

No. 2 in G Minor

Track length6:01

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Brahms: Klavierstücke (4), Op. 119

Work length16:11

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Jonathan Plowright
Recorded: January 2016
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk, England

No. 1, Intermezzo in B Minor

Track length4:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, Intermezzo in E Minor

Track length4:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3, Intermezzo in C Major

Track length1:20

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No. 4, Rhapsody in E-Flat Major

Track length5:25

$1.00

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Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini in A minor, Op. 35: Book 2

Work length11:31

$15.00

$19.50

$26.25

Jonathan Plowright
Recorded: January 2016
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk, England

Theme

Track length0:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Var. 1

Track length0:51

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Var. 2

Track length0:34

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Var. 3

Track length0:39

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Var. 4

Track length0:37

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Var. 5

Track length0:29

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Var. 6

Track length0:25

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Var. 7

Track length0:23

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Var. 8

Track length0:40

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Var. 9

Track length0:46

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Var. 10

Track length0:47

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Var. 11

Track length0:34

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Var. 12

Track length1:14

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Var. 13

Track length1:04

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Var. 14

Track length1:59

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$1.75

About
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The theme of Paganini’s 24th Caprice for solo violin has tempted a number of composers to elaborate on it – from Liszt to Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 1863, Johannes Brahms was one of the first to take on the challenge, with his virtuosic Paganini Variations. Playing the set has famously been described as requiring ‘fingers of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion’ and possibly the demands that they place on the performer is the main reason why Brahms organized his 28 variations into two books of 14 each. For the fourth instalment in his series of Brahms’s piano music, Jonathan Plowright has chosen to place the two books at either end of the programme.

Between them we are presented with works spanning almost 40 years of Brahms’s life. Of the four Ballades from 1854, it is only for the first, the so-called ‘Edward’ Ballade, that a model in literature is known – a Scottish ballad about the murder of a father. The set has nevertheless been compared to the slow movements in Brahms’s three piano sonatas, composed around the same time, and all with literary references.

25 years later, Brahms had entered a phase where his works for piano were growing ever shorter and more concise, but with his Op. 79 Rhapsodies he made something of a return to the grandeur and passion of his early piano writing. This development was short-lived, however, and the following works for solo piano, of which the four piano pieces of Op. 119 from 1893 would be the last, have been compared to ‘the golden lustre of parks in autumn and the austere black and white of winter walks’. Previous discs in Jonathan Plowright’s survey have received critical acclaim worldwide, and the series has already been dubbed ‘the benchmark Brahms survey for some time to come’ in Gramophone.

Reviews

July 2017

Plowright’s Brahms could easily be described as rugged: thunderclouds often loom and there are few moments of brighter outlook along the way…dark Brahms, then, but Plowright’s powerful, uncompromising vision has plenty of attitude and unfailing conviction, helping to make this a rewarding listen

April 2017

As we reach Volume 4 of this complete solo Brahms traversal, there’s no doubt that Jonathan Plowright and old Johannes are on the best of terms...Even Brahms’s most strenuous technical demands [in the Paganini Variations] hold no fears...But more telling still is the sense of playfulness that Plowright brings not only to the theme itself but to myriad variations.

July 2017

I do not recall when I enjoyed any Brahms programme more. This is the new benchmark survey for Brahms as Paul Lewis’ is for the Beethoven Sonatas. I cannot recommend this more highly.

May 2017

… the warmth of Brahms' affection for his friends shines through in Plowright's playing - still keeping a respectful distance from overdone histrionics, but letting the notes speak for themselves - at times in all their strangeness - in the best possible way.

Pianist Magazine April 2017

Jonathan Plowright is among the very finest of present-day British pianists…The late and elusive Op 119 pieces find Plowright at his best, with an outstanding singing tone and wonderfully long, sustained lines.

Brahms: Works for Solo Piano Volume 4

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