Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major & Cello Sonata, Op. 78, by Emmanuel Ax, the Boston Symphony Orchestra directed by Bernard Haitink, and Yo-Yo Ma

Rappers get a lot of criticism for inviting their friends on their records to get hit singles but classical musicians do the same thing themselves.  In this album, released by Sony Classical, we have the star of the show for these difficult Brahms concertos being virtuoso pianist Emmanuel Ax, who happens to give some supporting credit to two famous friends, guest conductor Bernard Haitink for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and noted cellist Yo-Yo Ma on a Violin Sonata that was re-scored by someone for the cello and piano.  These are well-known works among the Brahms repertoire and are well-played here.  The pieces are technically challenging and are, as the liner notes comment, somewhat elusive in that Brahms was a difficult person to get to know.  Nevertheless, these are good pieces when they can be heard.  The soft parts are very soft–too soft to be heard in the car–and the end result is that the piece has a great deal of dynamic range but all too often spends its time in long periods of silence at the beginning and end, and sometimes in the middle, of the lengthy movements.

In terms of its content, this disc contains 78 minutes of some of the most notable Brahms music that exists [1], specifically two of his lengthy concertos performed by world-renowned musicians.  Only seven movements fill these 78 minutes, the four movements of Brahms’ Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major for piano and the three movements of the Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano Op. 78 (arranged from the original Brahms Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano).  The pieces show a certain playfulness and are played extremely competently.  If not quite as enjoyable to listen to as, say, a disc of pieces arranged for the viola, this is music that is enjoyable to listen to and to pretend to direct.  The Concerto No. 2 in particular is a masterwork by Brahms, being a piece designed so that the piano itself is working against an entire orchestra, at times providing elaboration to what they are doing and at other times going on lengthy and challenging solos that stretch the capacity of the hand to hit all the notes.  Brahms, himself a pianist, did not make life easy on other musicians trying to play his music, that is for sure, and both of these songs are from a fairly mature level of Brahms, when he had proven his capacity and more or less dealt with most of his severe critics and fulfilled the promise of his early boosters like Schumann.

When judging a disc like this, one has to ask and answer a few questions.  Do the performances work well?  Yes, they do.  Is it bothersome that these classical musicians act like rappers with their guest credits on the pieces of others?  Not for this reviewer, who admittedly has an appreciation for rap that few classical listeners probably have [2].  Is this music I could imagine myself hearing if I listened to an NPR station from a major university?  Yes, very much so.  Having met these qualifications this disc should certainly be of pleasure to others who enjoy listening to high-quality orchestral works, although they are better suited, given the very quiet, almost silent range at the bottom of the dynamic register, for listening to in the quiet of one’s home or office rather than in noisy big-city traffic.  The fact that it is difficult to discern the quieter parts of the cd without blowing my car speakers was really the only flaw I could find in this lovely and charming cd of music from one of my favorite composers.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/audiobook-review-brahms-his-life-and-music/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/album-review-brahams-viola

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/thats-a-waste-of-good-chicken/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/in-praise-of-cultural-appropriation/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/straight-outta-whitewash/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/have-i-been-lost-inside-myself-and-my-own-mind/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/second-mover-advantage-on-provocation-and-restraint-in-hip-hop-battles/