Monday, July 14, 2008

Progress on Mount Brahms

While waiting for the processing of a replacement for my defective Brilliant Classics collection of the complete works of Ludwig van Beethoven, I have now progressed to the discs in the Brahms collection on which Joseph Kalichstein, Jaime Laredo, and Sharon Robinson perform the three piano trios. These recordings were apparently made in 1985, which would be very close to when my wife-to-be and I heard that Brahms "marathon" in Manhattan. The recordings remind me of how fresh and alive the concerts we attended had been. Having already discussed the virtue of recordings that prepare us for "real thing" events, it is nice to recognize that recordings can also "feed the memory," which is certainly the case with these performances. It was also nice to see that Brilliant Classics "recognized" Brahms' contribution to the "F.A.E." sonata as being part of the Gesamtwerk, just as the concert series at the 92nd Street Y did (and the Philips Complete Chamber Music collection did not)!

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