Search - Johannes Brahms, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman :: Brahms: Music for Two Pianos

Refreshing for the Ears and the Soul

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 03/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are those who carry unmerited disdain for the reduction of orchestral or quartet music to the piano state. Many feel this is beyond any composer's wishes - to have orchestral, fluid colors and nuances be relegated to the intrinsically percussive reproduction on the keyboard. But in fact, many composers wrote both one piano/4 hands and two piano versions of their favorite works, often performing them with friends during their lifetimes - Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel to mention only a few.



This recording is a brilliant clarion call for such piano reduction performances. While everyone knows Brahms wrote 4 hand piano accompaniments for such works as his 'Liebeslieder', these two works here played with the full spectrum of intensity, suavity, clarity, percussive brilliance and gentle caressing by Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman are likely to be surprises to the listener. VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF HAYDN is a standard in the orchestral repertoire and here placing these creative variations within the keyboard domains of Ax and Bronfman makes them sing with a completely new voice. Much the same can be said of the more elegant Piano Sonata in F Minor. What began as a solo piano work passed through the stage of a work for string quintet and here is presented in the two piano variation, a work of great beauty and expressivity.



Ax and Bronfman are so in tune with each other's dissimilar approach to the keyboard that the result of their collaboration is a vastly enhanced experience for the listener: compare the earlier Rachmaninoff 'Symphonic Dances' and Suites for 2 Pianos' recorded in 2001. Now the two pianists perform these works (and other works which we can only hope they will record!) on the stages of the orchestral halls around the world: their recent appearance in the Los Angeles Disney Hall was a sonic revelation. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 05

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The very best Ax/Bronfman have ever produced. BUY IT!!!

Erik Travis | Minneapolis | 01/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have long been one of Emanuel Ax's most loyal followers, but even with that being said, little could have prepared me for this truly outstanding album. A reviewer said of one of his earliest Chopin albums, that "this was some of the finest playing ever offered to the public." Ditto for this release. Glenn Gould said that "one shouldn't make recordings unless they have something new to say." If you love this classic music, and who doesn't?, GET THIS RECORDING! The Sonata is that of the great Brahms F minor Piano Quintet. I guarantee you will hear things you never knew existed and be playing it many times over. The ensemble is at a level few will ever reach, and the recording one of Sony's very best. The sonorities are incredible. In this time of a troubled economy, it still demands purchase. I haven't mentioned Bronfman, but he is very much 50% of the package and at his best as well. This is a MUST BUY!!"

A faultless program, but Argerich is even more brilliant

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/11/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems strange, after going for decades when Brahms's two-piano arrangements were on the far edge of the repertoire, to find not one but two sets of star pianists recording them. The other, besides ax and Bronfman, is Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, who recently released a stunningly poised and unanimous reading of the Haydn Variations. Argerich, who abandoned the recital stage long ago, has become a fanatic for piano duos and four-hand music, so she can be found partnered on EMI's "Argerich and Friends" with any number of second chairs. She's duplicated this Ax-Bronfman program with Alexandre Rabinovitch (Teldec) and the Sonata in F minor with Lilya Zilberstein (EMI). You'd hardly know that these two arrangements still appear very rarely in the concert hall.



Argerich's specialty is a free-spirited spontaneity that gives hints of a banked fire ready to turn into a wildfire. Brahms can certainly use the spark of excitement, and with her there are moments of danger and risk. For those reasons, it's hard to imagine better readings. Yet in their own right, Ax and Bronfman come through handsomely. Their F minor Sonata is so powerful and vital that it's almost as good as hearing the F minor Piano Quintet into which the music finally morphed. Two pianos have the advantage of perfect balance where it's a problem to balance a single piano with a string quartet. In the past I've complained about Ax and Bronfman being too polished and civilized, as in their recording of the two Rachmaninov Suites, where one is supposed to swoon, not sip tea. but this reading lacks nothing in alertness and energy.



As for the Haydn Variations, Argerich and Freire are miraculous in their live performance from Salzburg (DG), so it's hard to forget them in favor of Ax and Bronfman playing with solid technique, assured musicianship, but not quite that last spark of inspiration. The theme chosen by Brahms is so symmetrical and balanced that it needs to be thrown off kilter to sustain our interest through every variation. Ax and Bronfman are a bit hit and miss in that department, but mostly they cannot be faulted."