Rating: 5/5
Review:
Excellent recordings
These are excellent recordings. I make no pretence at being any sort of an expert on Brahms
– indeed, I find a good deal of his orchestral music quite a struggle. However, there are chamber works which I
think are excellent, and these piano quartets are among them. They are extremely well constructed, expressive
and very beautiful at times.
The performances here are superb, I think. The Leopolds are invariably excellent - seeing
them at Wigmore Hall was a highlight of my musical life and I have been half in
love with Kate Gould ever since :o) - and Marc-André Hamelin is now firmly
established as one of the world's great pianists. Together they produce something very special:
technically, of course, they are all brilliant so this demanding music sounds
quite natural and their interpretation and sense of communication is
exceptionally good. They really seems to
get to the heart of this music and bring out its varying moods beautifully,
with some of the more intense passages, for example, sounding genuinely
passionate and almost as rich in sound as a small orchestra while there is a
limpid beauty in other places. It's
exemplary playing.
Hyperion capture the sound beautifully as ever. This is a really good set all round and I can
recommend it very warmly.
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