Brahms’ music for solo piano not surprisingly spans his early years as a composer to his final period in the late 1890s. Like his hero Beethoven, his own instrument was a constant companion throughout his creative life.

The early works include the three piano sonatas – highly virtuosic works of heroic proportions, of which the Third is the most successful. Strangely for a composer so at ease with classical forms (and these 3 sonatas are virtually symphonies for solo piano), he never attempted a piano sonata again after this work, preferring the freer form of the Fantasie or Rhapsody. The undoubted masterwork of the early years is the Variation and Fugue on a Theme by Handel of 1861.

The late period works, from that glorious Indian Summer of his creativity, contain some of his most visionary music. The very late sets point to the world of Schoenberg in places, and the younger composer’s Op.19 date from just 12 to 14 years after these works. Having said that, these late works are visionary, they also contain some of his most accessible and beautiful music.

A complete survey of the composer's works for solo piano, containing much that is little known or performed.

Contents:
CD 1 [40’34]
- Piano Sonata No.1 in C Op.1
- Scherzo in E flat minor Op.34

CD 2 [63’17]
- Piano Sonata No.2 in F sharp minor Op.2
- Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor Op.5

CD 3 [54’00]
- Variations on a Theme of Paganini in A minor Op.35
- Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel in B flat Op.24

CD 4 [45’00]
- Variations on an Original Theme in D Op.1 No.1
- Variations on a Hungarian Song in D Op.1 No.2
- Variations on a Theme of Schumann in F sharp minor Op.9

CD 5 [62’14]
- Ballades Op.10
- Rhapsodies Op.79
- Klavierstücke Op.76

CD 6 [77’09]
- Fantasien Op.116
- Intermezzi Op.117
- Klavierstücke Opp. 118 & 119

CD 7 [58’02]
- Hungarian Dances 1–10
- 5 Piano Studies

CD 8 [72’56]
- Hungarian Dances 11–21
- Sarabandes 1 & 2
- Gavottes 1 & 2
- Gigues 1 & 2
- Transcription of a Gavotte by Gluck
- Study after an Impromptu by Schubert Op.90 No.2
- Theme and Variations in D minor