
Johannes Brahms on Piano
My next orchestra concert is with Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra on April 20. The program is Brahms's piano concerto No.2 and symphony No.1. Both are my favorite pieces and this is my first time playing the piano concerto.
I will write more about Brahms and the symphony in a separate entry but today I would like to share this Youtube video of the piano concerto. I have a recording of it by Sviatoslav Richter (a great, great pianist!) with Erich Leinsdorf conducting Chicago Symphony and that had been the only recording that I listened to. BUT, look what I found: Maurizio Pollini on piano with Claudio Abbado (my MOST favorite conductor) and the Vienna Philharmonic.
I will write more about Brahms and the symphony in a separate entry but today I would like to share this Youtube video of the piano concerto. I have a recording of it by Sviatoslav Richter (a great, great pianist!) with Erich Leinsdorf conducting Chicago Symphony and that had been the only recording that I listened to. BUT, look what I found: Maurizio Pollini on piano with Claudio Abbado (my MOST favorite conductor) and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Very luckily back in 2001, I got to hear an open rehearsal of Abbado and Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. Pollini played Brahms's piano concerto No.1 then. Since then Pollini has been my favorite, too.
Brahms spent three years to write this concerto (1878-81) and premiered it as a piano soloist in 1881. Around the same time he also wrote the famous violin concerto (1878), violin sonata No.1 (1878-79), Academic Festival Overture and Tragic Overture (1880).
Brahms spent three years to write this concerto (1878-81) and premiered it as a piano soloist in 1881. Around the same time he also wrote the famous violin concerto (1878), violin sonata No.1 (1878-79), Academic Festival Overture and Tragic Overture (1880).