Brahms: The Piano Concertos

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Clearly working in absolute rapport with Mark Wigglesworth, they achieve together a lean, at times almost wiry sound...yet there is no lack of muscular force or orchestral power in the many big... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 25th Nov 2013
Catalogue No: CDA67961
Label: Hyperion
Length: 97 minutes

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Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

Work length49:02

Album only

Stephen Hough (piano)
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg
Mark Wigglesworth

I. Maestoso

Track length22:53

Album only

II. Adagio

Track length13:28

$2.05

$2.50

$3.05

III. Rondo: Allegro non troppo

Track length12:41

$2.05

$2.50

$3.05

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83

Work length48:52

Album only

Stephen Hough (piano), Marcus Pouget (cello)
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg
Mark Wigglesworth

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length18:19

Album only

II. Allegro appassionato

Track length9:10

$1.50

$1.85

$2.30

III. Andante

Track length11:53

$2.05

$2.50

$3.05

IV. Allegretto grazioso

Track length9:30

$1.50

$1.85

$2.30

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This attractively priced double set is one of Stephen Hough’s most important recordings. ‘Britain’s greatest living pianist’ (The Mail on Sunday) is joined by the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and international conductor Mark Wigglesworth in their Hyperion debut for Brahms’s Piano Concertos. These works are among the greatest in the genre, and shore up Brahms’s reputation as both a symphonist and a piano composer. Separated by twenty-two years and widely differing in their reception (the first was scorned and the second a huge success), they are monumental in scale, impassioned and truly romantic, forward-looking in form and requiring both great virtuosity and intimacy from the pianist. Stephen Hough has performed them in concert for many years to ecstatic acclaim: this new recording is surely one of his most desirable offerings.

Reviews

February 2014

Clearly working in absolute rapport with Mark Wigglesworth, they achieve together a lean, at times almost wiry sound...yet there is no lack of muscular force or orchestral power in the many big moments. Hough brings an unusually wide range of keyboard colour to bear on Brahms's piano-writing.

January 2014

Wigglesworth is pact and taut in rhythm...The impression I have here is of readings that have divested themselves of excess baggage and are lighter on their feet...I ended up delighted by and in complete admiration of Hough's boldness. He has become a warmer player of increased range in Brahms, and unafraid to take risks.

7th January 2014

I cannot fault Hough’s playing: the balance between the sheer virtuosity and the intimacy of this music is perfectly stated. Each concerto has a different mood and palette of emotions. Hough brings a special quality of reflection to these works which for my taste gives a considerable added value.

5th January 2014

Hough brings his famed dexterity to the bravura passages, but never sounds glitzy or showy. Indeed, the most rewarding aspect of both performances is his chamber-music-like interplay with the excellent Mozarteumorchester’s soloists These familiar and oft-recorded works sound fresh minted. Brahms’s concertos have rarely sounded more brilliant, energetic and innovative.

5th December 2013

The way in which [Hough] and conductor Mark Wigglesworth drive the opening movement of the First Concerto to its conclusion is thrilling physical; at the other extreme, the delicacy of his playing in the finale of the Second, and the lilt he brings to some of its episodes, are delights.

29th November 2013

[Hough's] performances here show his usual thoughtfulness, elegance and brilliance...The reverberations of the entire orchestra are equally slow to die. The conductor Mark Wigglesworth scrupulously prepared his musicians and their medium-weight sound offers the best of both worlds

Brahms: The Piano Concertos

2 CDs

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