Skip to main content

Brahms: Piano Quartets #1 and #3

Today's disk is one of my all-time favorites. I affectionately call it "old man" because of the picture of a somnolent Artur Rubenstein on the cover.
**********************
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor
Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor
Artur Rubinstein and the Guarneri Quartet
RCA, 1988, originally recorded 1967
**********************
I'll confess, it took some getting used to for me to appreciate these chamber music works. First, I'm a trumpet player, and know less than nothing about stringed instruments or the piano. Heck it wasn't until I got this disk that I figured out that a "piano quartet" wasn't four pianos playing together (it's actually a string trio--violin, viola and cello--accompanied by piano). Second, most beginning listeners, when they think of classical music, think of the symphony as its primary form.

But spend 40 minutes listening quietly and closely to Brahms' Piano Quartet #1 and tell me it isn't one of the most beautiful, complex and emotional works of music you've ever heard.

Each movement of these two Piano Quartets has palpable tension that rises and falls throughout the piece. Brahms can create emotion in a small ensemble that rivals any composer using the full arsenal of a symphony.

While undeniably pleasant to listen to, this music is also complicated and challenging. It might take you a few passes to really get your arms around the key melodies and themes in each of these two works. But just remember: one of the great pleasures of listening to great music (of any kind) is that you are rewarded for repeated listens.

Brahms wrote three piano quartets; this disk contain exceptional performances of Quartets #1 and #3. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't offer my particular recording, so I've linked below to a well-regarded CD (as well as MP3's) of the complete Piano Quartets performed by the Beaux Arts Trio. If you're interested in getting to know these profoundly beautiful works, feel free to click either link to head over to Amazon.

A brief note on MP3 files: Be aware that typically, each MP3 file represents only one movement of a given classical music work. Thus there are four "tracks" to each piano quartet. Clearly, the powers that be didn't have classical music in mind when they developed the MP3 format. However, the link directly below should allow you to purchase the entire album in MP3 format with one click. Below that is a link to Amazon to the same recording in traditional CD format.

I'm also experimenting with a new Amazon widget (over on the right side margin) that will also help you to purchase MP3s of more of the music I discuss on this blog. Please tell me what you think!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Does Bach Suck?

It's not often that you see a classical music-related comment that makes you spit out your coffee : "Bach sucks because he was not a true composer. A true composer hears the music before he writes it. Bach composed using a mathematical system of numbers which he tought[sic] his students. After his death one of his students published a book “How to write a menuet[sic] with little or no musical knowledge”. Frankly, the result of his work is not musical, the opening bars always sound musical because he copied someone else’s melody, broke it down into numbers and wrote counterpoint from it. Handel did not even like Bach, because Handel wrote music. Anyone who does like Bach does so because they are told to. For a comparison, listen to music by Frescobaldi, Rameau, or Couperin, then listen to Bach. The difference? Something that is musical throughout the entire piece, and something that is musical for 10 seconds and quickly loses interest." Once I'd finished mopping the co
15 comments
Read more

Why Classical Music Writing is So Difficult to Read

Have you ever read the liner notes of a classical music CD and scratched your head wondering what the heck the writer was trying to say? Or attempted to read a classical music concert review in your newspaper and felt totally illiterate? One of the things that frustrates many people about classical music is its perceived elitism. It's unfortunate, but most of what gets written about classical music only worsens that perception. Most of the classical music writing I see out there--either in symphony concert program books, in concert reviews in major papers like the New York Times, or worst of all in the little essays in the booklets accompanying most classical music CDs--is quite simply terrible. Often, it is pretentiously written, it is full of industry jargon (yes, even the classical music industry has its own jargon), and it reads like an intellectually insecure liberal arts student's PhD thesis. There are a few reasons for this. First, there's the fundamental difficulty
8 comments
Read more

Schubert: Symphony #3

I have a confession to make. Today's CD is not only further proof of my need to start this blog, but it is perhaps the most embarrassing example of how mindless and uncontemplative my life had become over the past several years. This CD sat on my shelf with more than a hundred other CDs for years, unlistened to, unnoticed, and collecting dust. It was just like all the rest of my CDs, except, uh, in one key respect: It was still in its cellophane wrapper. I had been so out of touch with myself that I bought CDs that I forgot I bought. I must have wanted to listen to this CD at some point, but apparently in the time between buying the CD and putting it on the shelf, I got distracted. For ten years. That is a prime, and admittedly foolish-sounding, example of why I'm taking a break from my career, and why I started this blog. I guess I didn't want to wake up in another ten years and hear myself making excuses for myself like "I work too hard and make too much money to
4 comments
Read more