Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels (2021 Remastered, Chicago 1958)
1 disc(s) - 4 track(s)
Total length: 00:45:12
The first sketches for Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 date back to the spring of 1878, shortly after Brahms had returned from a trip to Italy. However, the composition of the Violin Concerto occupied him for almost the entire summer, and it was only after a second trip to Italy that he resumed work on this piece during a stay in Pressbaum, near Vienna, in 1881. The work was first performed in November 1881, with Brahms at the piano and Alexander Erkel conducting. The score was not published until September 1882. In March of that year, he wrote to his publisher: “I don’t understand why there should be such a rush for the concerto. It rests here quite comfortably with me and disturbs no one.”
This concerto differs from others in that it is composed of four movements. Even more than in the D minor concerto, Brahms fused the piano part with that of the orchestra in such a way that, if the soloist does not possess extraordinary strength, the piano can easily be drowned out by the orchestra. Emil Gilels is renowned for the perfection of his performances and the typically Russian vigor of his playing. He also possessed exceptional sensitivity and profound musical insight. All these qualities make him one of the finest interpreters of Brahms’s piano concertos.
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