Vincenzo Maltempo’s considerable catalogue of recordings for Piano Classics includes a much-admired set of the two concertos by Brahms. According to Fanfare, ‘Maltempo… plays with commanding technique, grand gestural sweep throughout, and real tonal bloom.’
For this second volume of the composer’s solo output for the piano, Maltempo has devised a compelling journey for the listener, from the noble and often heroic profile of the Ballades Op.10 to the late and distilled collections Opp. 116-119, taking in en route the Variations on an Original Theme Op.21 No.1 and the eight Klavierstücke Op.76.
In his performances, Maltempo brings out this stylistic evolution of both piano-writing and harmony, enabling us to appreciate for ourselves the degree to which Brahms continually challenged himself to enrich and experiment with his style as well as ruthlessly exercising on himself the red pen and the sharp ear which made him so shrewd a critic of fellow composers.
The scholar Denis Matthews identified three phases, or styles, in Brahms, not necessarily equating to the conventional division of early, middle and late: the architectural, contrapuntal and lyrical. On the surface, beyond a more intense chromaticism and openness to dissonance, there is relatively little to separate the Balllades from the late works.
Much the least-often heard piece in this collection is the Variations Op.21, and the teasing ingenuity of Brahms’s treatment of his theme – initially quiet and introspective – is based on a rigorous exploration of contrapuntal possibilities. The Variations date from a period immediately after his fateful meeting with Robert and Clara Schumann in Dusseldorf, when he found himself stretched to live up to the Schumanns’ extravagant praise of him as the pre-eminent successor to Beethoven. They and others were captivated by the composer’s own mastery of his instrument as a performer, too, and The Op.21 Variations show Brahms moving on from the extrovert keyboard lionism of works such as the First Concerto while still using the variation principle to celebrate virtuosity as both a composer and a pianist.
