Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5

This is Volume 2 in our series devoted to the works for solo piano by Johannes Brahms, with the acclaimed pianist Barry Douglas. Since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, Douglas has established a major international career, and his reputation as a pianist and conductor continues to grow.

Brahms wrote his set of four Ballades, Op. 10 (of which Nos 2 and 3 are included on this disc) at the age of twenty-one, and at a time of much personal upheaval. His friend and patron Schumann had attempted suicide and been confined to a sanatorium near Bonn, and Brahms had been thrust into the role of protector and comforter of Schumann’s wife, Clara, while coming to terms with his own strong feelings for her. Reflective of the difficult situation, these Ballades display a deep-felt blend of the dramatic and the lyrical.

A few months before he composed the Ballades, during his stay with the Schumanns in October 1853, Brahms completed a new piano sonata with which he had been struggling throughout the spring and summer of that year. Published as his Sonata No. 3, it would remain his single largest keyboard composition. It unites aspects of his two previous sonatas – the classical features of No. 1 with the romantic, fantasia-like character of No. 2 – and surpasses both of them in virtuosity and structural command.

Brahms’s collections of short piano pieces, issued as Op. 116 – 19, were among his final compositions for piano, and albeit a few of them provide brief glimpses of the old energy and fire, most are reflective, and deeply introspective in character. This was music that Brahms wrote to play for himself, or at the most to a few close friends. In fact, Clara Schumann was the first to see these in their manuscript form.

British pianist Jonathan Plowright makes his début recording on BIS. Hailed by Gramophone as ‘one of the finest living pianists’, Plowright is recognised worldwide as a truly exceptional artist.

Brahms’s Piano Sonata No. 3 is heroic in scale, unconventional in layout and exudes high quality making it one of the most impressive sonatas since those of Beethoven and Schubert.

Brahms never wrote another piano sonata after completing No. 3 but instead concentrated on a series of large-scale sets of variations, among which the Handel Variations must be considered his crowning achievement. Completed in September 1861 the work shows Brahms at the height of his powers,

Recorded live at the Dvorák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, on March 31, 2001 (Brahms) and on March 22, 2008 (Liszt). New recording / Live

Following the series of four CDs featuring Smetana piano works (Supraphon SU3841-44), the ebullient pianist and buttress of the highly acclaimed Smetana Trio, Jitka Cechová, decided to “take up the gauntlet” with a live concert recording, which deprives the performer of the comfort of detailed corrections in the studio. Owing to their sheer difficulty, Brahms’ and Liszt’s compositions are a great challenge for any renowned pianist.

The third (and final) sonata created by the 20-year-old Brahms and the one and only sonata by the 42-yearold Liszt originated in the very same year. Whereas the former met with a significant response, the latter had to struggle for more than half a century to gain a firm foothold in concert programmes. Today, both of the pieces are deservedly ranked among the apexes of Romantic piano music.

In Jitka Cechová’s masterful and inspired interpretation, enhanced by the splendid acoustics of Prague’s Rudolfinum, the recording is a truly fantastic experience.

World-renowned pianist Hélène Grimaud plays two Brahms Sonatas (2 and 3) as well as the Intermezzi from Op.118