Chamber
CD and Other Review

Review: Brahms: Piano Quartet No 1, Piano Quintet (Ironwood)

Although it’s tempting to think of period performance as consisting mainly of lutes and viols, the reality is far from that! This is a recording of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 in G Minor and the Piano Quintet in F Minor as he would have heard it. The three string players use gut-strung instruments and Neal Peres Da Costa plays a replica of Brahms’ Streicher grand piano. Along with Ironwood’s extensive exploration of performance practice of the late 19th century, this all adds up to quite a different sound.   I have to admit that I find a significant number of Brahms recordings woefully heavy and ponderous. These recordings, however, are quite the opposite. I suspect that it’s Ironwood’s careful research into the performance of the music of Brahms and his contemporaries that gives these performances a lightness that’s refreshing. Most recordings that I’ve heard of the Piano Quintet tend to emphasise the power of many of the passages, but for once ensemble passages are not completely overpowering. The liner notes point out that one of the key elements of Brahms’ own performances was the avoidance of metronomic playing, calling it “free, very elastic and expansive”. Perhaps… Continue reading Get…

March 10, 2017
Chamber
CD and Other Review

Review: Grainger: Complete Music for Four Hands, Two Pianos (Penelope Thwaites, John Lavender, Timothy Young)

In one form or other, most of us are familiar with the music of Percy Grainger; arguably the most internationally successful of all Australian composers – at least until the advent of Peter Sculthorpe. Grainger was also a dazzling pianist and could make one piano sound like four, so the extra layers of counterpoint and detail, all sparkling and optimistic, sound even more spectacular in these editions. Apart from attractive pot-boilers such as Handel in the Strand, Country Gardens and Molly on the Shore, the four discs offer us the opportunity to hear music that we are unfamiliar with. New to me are the Wrath of Odin and The Rival Brothers, and some pieces work best in their orchestral and vocal form, such as The Lonely Desert Man. The Brisk Young Sailor has all the Grainger hallmarks that made him such an entertaining composer: cross rhythms, syncopations and a bright engaging tune. English Waltz is also a marvellous piece and goes with an engaging swing. Not all are short trifles. Hill Song No 1 is over 16 minutes long, and wanders its convoluted way across the keyboard as if the composer was searching for something. The three pianists… Continue reading…

March 10, 2017