Nicholas Angelich/Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Piano works Opus 76
Gramophone Editor's Choice - September 2010
Nicholas Angelich, American-born, but French-trained, continues his exploration of Brahms for Virgin Classics with this performance of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 2, an epic, four-movement work that demands both grand pianism and chamber-music sensibilities. In the past, Gramophone has praised Angelich’s “trenchant, focused Brahms,” describing him as “a formidable player … whose performances … are of a wholly exceptional drama, sweep and impeccable craftsmanship.” When Angelich played the concerto live in Autumn 2008 with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, the Frankfurter Neue Presse found that: “Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto gave proof of the art of Angelich’s phrasing as he found unexpected depth in the seemingly amiable parlando of the second movement. He struck a commanding path through the denser material and his technical expertise brought every facet of the work to light.”
“Brahms was always very important for me -- and for my parents,” explained Angelich in a recent interview with Pianiste magazine “… I studied the sonata in F minor op 5 when I was 10 or 11 years old … When I was 9 or 10 I played the second sonata with my father and I worked on the Concerto No 2 when I was 14 .. Then I discovered the string chamber music, the songs, and I played all the chamber music with piano. All this was very nourishing for me.”
Angelich’s Virgin Classics recording of Fantasies op 116. Intermezzi op 111, Klavierstücke opp 118 and 119, was designated a ‘Music Choice’ by the BBC Music Magazine: “Steering a balanced course between imaginative vitality and warmth on one side and resigned melancholy on the other can be difficult, but Nicholas Angelich manages it with a kind of panache. He takes you to the brink of inconsolable sadness one moment, only to put a refreshing spring in the step of a dance movement the next ... [Angelich keeps] the melody lines fluid and shapely, and brings light to the textures without emasculating that rich bass sound so typical of Brahms … For all his respect for tone weight, Angelich can also make Brahms sound deliciously light and transparent … the colours and textures all seem to emerge quite naturally from the printed notes … Very impressive all round.” His Brahms ballades and rhapsodies attracted praise from Le Monde de la Musique for: “his way of filling musical space without losing sight of a work’s perspectives or blurring its contours.”
