FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

Brahms & Shostakovich - Piano Quintets | Northern Flowers NFPMA9913

Brahms & Shostakovich - Piano Quintets

£11.38

Usually available for despatch within 2-3 weeks

Label: Northern Flowers

Cat No: NFPMA9913

Barcode: 4607053326697

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Contents

About

The history of the creation of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet is extremely interesting and tangled. In its first version, it was a String Quintet (with two cellos), which was no success and severely criticized by Joseph Joachim, a remarkable violinist and the composer's friend. The second edition of the opus, the Sonata for Two Pianos, was performed by the author, and the Polish pianist and composer Carl Tausig in 1864 in Vienna, this time making quite an impression on the audience. However, advised by Clara Schumann who liked the initial version better, Brahms remade the piece again, but into a Piano Quintet eventually, finalizing the score in the autumn of 1864. As a result of al these transformations undergone, the Quintet for two violins, viola, cello, and piano became one of the most popular masterpieces of the great composer, inevitably exciting the audience with sparkling virtuosity, abundance of sound, and some unmistakably 'Brahmsian' intimacy.

The performance of the Piano Quintet of Dmitri Shostakovich on 23 November 1940 in Moscow (by the Beethoven Quartet and the composer) was to become one of the greatest triumphs in his life. The musicians were encored dozens of times, and there was no end to applause. After the concert, Shostakovich had to walk alone around Moscow for several hours to calm down. The new composition was accepted with delight. Colleagues, friends, critics, all as one emphasized the merits and charm of the new composition. Moreover, in 1941 the composer was awarded a Stalin Prize for the Piano Quintet. It was a gold medal with an image of the "Leader of Nations" and one hundred thousand rubles, a heap of money enormous for those times. The rulers hinted to disgraced Shostakovich that he was ’forgiven’.

Recorded: St Catherine Lutheran Church, St Petersburg, 12, 13 & 14 November 2002

St Petersburg Chamber Soloists:
 - Ilya Ioff (violin)
- Lidia Kovalenko (violin)
- Alexey Ludevig (viola)
- Alexey Massarsky (cello)
- Igor Uryash (piano)

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here