Search - Johannes Brahms, Beaux Arts Trio :: Brahms: Piano Quartets, Opp. 25, 26, 60 [Hybrid SACD]

Ravishing Brahms in Super Audio CD

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've loved the these performances of the Brahms Piano Quartets for more than twenty years. I owned them on LP and then again on CD when Philips issued them in that format. Now they are available again with a difference. These performances were originally recorded in the early 1970s in what was then the new quadraphonic system. Unfortunately what was recorded on tape was not really true to life on quadraphonic LP. When it was issued in CD it was in two-channel sound and although it was an improvement over the old LP versions, it still didn't include all four channels. Now it does! This two-CD issue, being hybrid SACD, contains both two-channel for regular CD players, and four-channel for SACD players. There is a clear difference between the two. The four-channel imparts a depth and richness not available on the regular CD (although I have to say that the regular CD is still pretty darn nice sounding).



As for the performances I have to admit my bias in favor of almost anything done by the Beaux Arts trio (here with the addition of violist Walter Trampler). They were (and still are) the premier piano trio before the public. (The personnel of the Beaux Arts has undergone some changes but Menahem Pressler, the last I heard, was still their pianist, and what a chamber musician he is!) These are subtle but exciting performances. The finale of the First Quartet just about raises the roof. My pulse quickened as I listened to it and I immediately replayed it as an encore! The pain and sadness of the Third Quartet is conveyed directly. (This is the one Brahms told his publisher should be published with a picture of a man with a gun to his head.)



Superb Brahms, superb performances, superb sound.



Scott Morrison"

Music for those who love MUSIC!

Mark Goretsky | 02/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brahms loved very much his quartets, especially Op.25 and Op.26. The Beaux Trio+1 put their hearts and minds to give possibly the best interpretation of that intimate music. I think, if only people could afford to spend 12 minutes of their time absorbing the Poco Adagio from Op.26, the world would be less corrupt and there wouldn't be any fascists-rulers."