Brahms: Ballades (4), Op. 10

“This music is wonderfully inventive, and Farrell brings out all the poetry and melancholy and humourin a performance that could hardly be bettered.” Gramophone Magazine, April 1959 (on Grieg’s Ballade)

“I enjoyed his playing very much, for he has what is today the rare virtue of being able to play slowly. Though he often tosses off quick passages at conventional speeds (and he has plenty of technique), he always plays slow movements and slow sections of movements considerably slower than almost every other pianist listed above. And yet he is neither sentimental nor dull ; his playing, on the contrary, is movingly contemplative and poetic.” Gramophone Magazine, July 1957 (on the Grieg Piano Concerto)

“Trenchant, focused Brahms from a formidable player...[Angelich's] performances on this disc are of a wholly exceptional drama, sweep and impeccable craftsmanship. Few young pianists have so little truck with flighty, salon-ish alternatives to seriousness, and his Brahms is sufficiently authoritative to make one long to hear him in the piano concertos.” Gramophone Magazine

“This is an outstanding performance of Brahms's G minor Piano Quartet, unforgettable for its spontaneity and uninhibited Romantic warmth and verve. The booklet reminds us that this 1971 recording made history since 'a contract between an artist from the Soviet Union and a Western label was a sensational event in cultural diplomacy'.
Reproduced with respect for the sound quality of its time, the playing has a glowing strength and intensity throughout. Only in the first movement's opulent textures does the keyboard occasionally dominate. From Emil Gilels we're also given a maturely unhurried, essentially 'inward' recording of Brahms's youthful Ballades.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Biret's bold, meaty technique fits the music well.” Classic CD