This large
Brahms
set, three CDs in the physical version, offers the composer's two piano concertos plus four late sets of piano music, Opp.
116
-
119
. That is an unusual pairing and a lot of
, but this seems to be the idea. Pianist
Igor Levit
wants to contrast the public and the private
, and he delivers quite divergent performances of the two. In the concertos,
Levit
and the
Vienna Philharmonic
under conductor
Christian Thielemann
don't stray too far from the beaten path, although, with performers at this level, one had better believe everything will be perfectly executed.
and
Thielemann
are in close communication, and there are many passages in which they jointly push the tempo slightly, with positive effect. The sets of late piano pieces are a different story entirely. These works were performed in various settings, and since
was a major celebrity at the end of his life, they may have been played in large halls. However,
takes them as intimate pieces for small groups of connoisseurs, turning down the temperature and drawing the listener into a close circle (
joins
on piano on one piece). Sample the quietness of the
Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 116, No. 4
, from the
Seven Fantasias
. These are subtle performances in the extreme that seem attuned to the intellectual quality of these works. The sound in the concertos, recorded at the Vienna Musikverein, is unusual;
Sony
's engineers have taken the space's inherent warmth and played it up, bathing the whole thing in a sunny haze. This sacrifices a bit of detail in favor of an unusual glow, and it may be a matter of taste; for situations like these, sampling was invented. In any event, this is a
recording by major artists who all acquit themselves well in one way or another, and it made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2024. ~ James Manheim