Brahms: Scherzo in E flat minor, Op. 4

Johannes Brahms was just 19 years old in 1852-53 when he wrote the first two piano sonatas he deemed worthy of publication. In these extended 4-movement compositions he built on the heritage of Beethoven.

The fact that Brahms had produced a pair of masterpieces was immediately recognised by his mentor Robert Schumann, who eased his young colleague’s way into the future with his celebrated article ‘New Paths’ of 1853.

Alexander Melnikov was born in Moscow in 1973 and began his music studies at the age of six, at Moscow’s Central Music School, then continued at the city’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory from which he graduated in 1997 (class of Lev Naumov). Regularly invited by Sviatoslav Richter, he participated in his festivals in Moscow (December Nights), and his chamber music festival at La Grange de Meslay (Tours, France). He completed his postgraduate studies with Elisso Virssaladze in Munich. From 2000 to 2002 he was a BBC New Generation Artist.

Alexander Melnikov appears regularly in recital at the world’s leading concert halls with major orchestras. Besides his well-established duo with Isabelle Faust his partners include Vadim Repin, Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Alexander Roudine, Pieter Wispelwey, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and many others. In piano duo repertoire he appears regularly with Andreas Staier, Boris Berezovsky, and Alexei Lubimov. He also regularly performs on the fortepiano with Concerto Köln.

He has recorded several CDs on harmonia mundi, as a soloist (Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich) or as a chamber musician (Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Teunis van der Zwart). His recording of the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues was a Gramophone Critics’ Choice 2010.

The two Brahms piano concertos stand like bookends to his career. The First had a long and difficult gestation, starting life as a symphony. The premiere was a disaster, with hissing and slow hand-clapping. One reviewer wrote that it was more a ‘concerto for piano against orchestra’, than a concerto for piano and orchestra. It’s young man’s music – turbulent, aggressive and passionate, with moments of great tenderness, especially in the slow movement.

The Second is a vast work in four movements. Brahms (always ready to issue misleading news on his new works) described it as a small work, light and cheerful. However, it is imbued with the autumnal sunshine warmth of late Brahms, and, although not without moments of great drama and another deeply emotional slow movement, is a supremely confident work from a composer at the peak of his powers.

Both concertos require a titanic pianistic technique and wrists of steel. Stephen Kovacevich’s first recordings of these two works were highly praised when first issued. They are appropriately and generously coupled with solo works roughly contemporaneous to each concerto. Kovacevich has gone on to make other fine recordings of this repertoire, but these show him at the height of his considerable powers.

New booklet notes.

‘Let me say straight away that the performance is extremely fine; indeed, such is its eloquence that I put aside the score and notepad and just listened for pleasure the first time round.’ Gramophone (First Concerto), June 1981

‘The performance combines poetic feeling and intellectual strength in no small measure, and it is one to which I am sure I will want to return. There is an unforced, natural eloquence that I much admire; the first movement unfolds without any false urgency and momentum; it is spacious, autumnal, reflective as well as majestic.’ Gramophone (Second Concerto), December 1981

Following his critically acclaimed first Brahms release in 2006, Tilman Krämer brings together the piano sonatas 1 & 2, coupled with the delightfully forceful tones of the Scherzo. This release will undoubtedly receive the plaudits from the musical press, as did his first release – “…. it has been a long time since I have heard Brahms with such nuances”

World premiere recording of Brahms’s Violin Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Own arrangement of pianist Dejan Lazic.

Premieres with top orchestras around the world in 2010.

In his extended liner notes Dejan Lazic explains against the historical background why and how he worked on this major project:

‘I started working on this project in early 2003 and completed it in 2008. The violin was always a favourite love, and I continue to hold violinists in high esteem, realising just how wonderful their literature is. Thus far, I have been tremendously lucky to have had many an opportunity to perform with some wonderful colleagues. And it is with a degree of pride that I present – after Bach and Beethoven – the third “great B” in the present arrangement. Is one actually "allowed" to make such an arrangement? With the benefit of hindsight, we know that Brahms made countless arrangements and transcriptions of his and other composers' works. I am convinced these were more than justified; hence, I hope that Brahms himself would not have anything against my idea. What lingers is the rhetorical question of what is a transcription, what makes an arrangement, what may be defined as a new version. The key to this conundrum is that I sought to construct anew the violin part, recomposing the voice in a thorough-going Brahmsian style and adding my own Cadenza. Throughout the piece that was my thought: to imagine what Brahms would do. Of great import is that the orchestral score remains entirely unchanged! With this arrangement - done solely out of respect and admiration for the composer - my main goal was to translate Brahms's unique musical language into a new setting without losing any of its original musical value and, in addition, to give pianists an equal chance to perform and enjoy this wonderful music the same way violinists do for exactly 130 years now.’ Dejan Lazic