Brahms, Johannes: Piano Quintet.Brahms, Johannes Brahms, Johannes (brämz, Ger. yōhän`nĕs bräms), 1833–97, German composer, b. Hamburg. Brahms ranks among the greatest masters of the romantic period. : Piano Quintet A piano quintet is a chamber musical ensemble made up of one piano and four other instruments, or the name of a piece written for such a group. The most common grouping is one piano, two violins, a viola, and a cello—that is, a piano with a string quartet. , Op. 34. The Leipziger Streichquartett; Andreas Staier Andreas Staier (born September 13 1955 in Göttingen) is a German pianist and harpsichordist. Life Staier studied piano and harpsichord in the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover, with Kurt Bauer and Erika Haase for piano and from Lajos Rovatkay for harpsichord, and also in , piano. Recorded in 2002, at Furstliche Reitbahn, Bad Arolsen. Engineer: Friedrich W. Rodding. 39 minutes. MD&G 307 1218. Interestingly, this work appeared in two previous, but unpublished, forms before Brahms settled on the piano quintet format. Previously it had been composed for string quintet A string quintet is an ensemble of five string instrument players or a piece written for such a combination. The most common combinations in classical music are two violins, two violas and cello or two violins, viola and two cellos. and then later on for two pianos, with the former version eventually destroyed by the composer, possibly because some of the string parts (the ones later given to the piano) were too difficult to play. The dual piano sonata version, which was privately circulated, was criticized by some of Brahms' friends as being too small in scale for just two instruments. Clara Schumann thought it rated a full-orchestra treatment, actually. What we have here is a somewhat smaller-scale compromise and the piano-quintet arrangement was actually the only interpretation of the musical themes to be formally published. Other than its rather short length (they could have added an entire additional work by Brahms within the remaining disc space), this item is an exemplary release. The performance is terrific and the sound is borderline demo grade. Of course, demo grade with only five players does not mean bombast or audio-show attention-getting abilities. However, the overall realism is exemplary, and with some surround DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive added (I found Dolby Pro Logic See Dolby Surround. II worked outstandingly well), the disc has a you-are-there sound that is hard to beat. |
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