Search - Johannes Brahms, Christian Kohn, Silke-Thora Matthies :: Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2; Five Waltzes

This Glorious Series Nears Its End (Sigh!)

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 05/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been in raptures about this entire series of recordings of Brahms's own piano four-hand arrangements of much of his music, played by the marvelous German piano duo of Silka-Thora Matthies and Christian Köhn. There has been nary a clunker in the now fourteen CDs issued. I was perhaps a little less than thrilled with the German Requiem as arranged for piano duo, but that was simply because I missed the sound of a chorus. I was absolutely bowled over by the piano duo arrangement of the First Piano Concerto - can you imagine that? - and must have played it a dozen times over the months. A previous issue included the G Minor Piano Quartet, Op. 25, and this issue brings us to its mate, the A Major Piano Quartet, Op. 26. As far as I know, Brahms did not make a piano duo of the third piano quartet, the early one published as Op. 60. So this will be it for the piano quartets.



The A Major Quartet is a big one, four movements lasting forty-five minutes, and very unusually three of its movements are in sonata-allegro form (although they are somewhat modified by Brahms for his purposes). I bet you've never heard a chamber music scherzo in sonata-allegro form, but we've got one here, complete with the obligatory scherzo trio section. Only the Adagio is non-sonata-form; it is sort of a set of variations, but even here Brahms has a few oddments up his sleeve. Yes, this is an intriguing, not to mention beautiful, work. The arrangement is, of course, expert, and you will not be surprised that I think Matthies and Köhn play it expertly. They have got the Brahmsian ethos in their blood stream by now, even if they might not have when they started this gargantuan task of recording all the piano duo works. Köhn, a professor in Detmold, is also in the process of editing the piano duos for publication by Bärenreiter.



There is a bit of a ringer on this disc. The duo has already recorded the Waltzes, Op. 39, arranged for piano four-hands by Brahms. Thirty years later, in 1897, Brahms took Nos. 1, 2, 11, 14, and 15 from that set and arranged them for two pianos, and that's what we get here. He has expanded them harmonically and in range so that there is sweep and interest not evident in the piano solo and piano duo versions. They, too, are played with panache by Matthies/Köhn.



This series has been a complete joy and I am saddened to think that it is all but over now. I think there may be one more disc and then that will be it. Sigh.



Strongly recommended.



TT=52:30



Scott Morrison"