In spite of my absence here during the few last weeks, my Brahms journey is ongoing. After doing Op.119, I'm currently working on Opp.118 and 76 and these two Intermezzi are my first recording. In my mind they should be played one after the other as a unity, the first Intermezzo being sort of a prelude to the second piece.


Brahms - Klavierstuecke Op.118, No.1: Intermezzo in A minor

Brahms - Klavierstuecke Op.118, No.2: Intermezzo in A major

bravo signore!


la mia panchina e bella!

Thank you, sir.



Oh, your bench is beautiful. Which bench? Were you sitting in a park with a WiFi connection when you wrote that?
And what about the bench? It's something like http://vimeo.com/1665301? (I'd like one of those in my garden.)

These sounded very nice too! Just one tiny little thing - the pedaling is a little blurry at 5:23 when the RH goes from the C to the B. (now this is really nitpicky!) You did it better at 1:30. But that's it, everything else is fine. Great job! They are up on the site.



Ouch! That looks like a good bench to offer guests that you don't want staying for a long time.

Saluti dalla Corea, Alfonso
I listened to both.
No.1 - This tempo is the slowest one in my experiences of this piece, but your idea about the unity of these first two pieces explains your choice of tempo very convincingly. And it sounds totally good! I see you have something to tell throughout the piece and it fits to the piece itself perfectly and fills every space of this piece fully. Great interpretation.
No.2 - I wished a slightly faster tempo, but this is of course a matter of taste (or perhaps because of the hot weather here). But I liked you brought out other voices at the ending very much.

Hi Alfonso,

I listened to both intermezzi. They were both very well played, and No. 2 was superb in my opinion. I've played it myself, so know the piece well. Therein, I especially liked in Part B how you brought out the melodic voice leading between the hands. And in the chorale-like chordal section, how you alternated the voicing of the chords between the right and left hands in turn. It's difficult to do, but you succeeded nicely. I also enjoyed No. 1--very beautifully played. For years I've been meaning to get to No. 1 in this set, but have yet to arrive there. Someday.

David

Ha, on re-listening you're right. But at that level of nitpicking there are other small inaccuracies as well. Also, there's an audible edit at the beginning of the chord section.



Oh no, I'd set the dogs on those!
That bench would come with plenty of coins. Don't you find it more entertaining than a garden dwarf?

Thank you very much HJ (by the way, I hope you're enjoying your stay).
I'm very glad you liked the first Intermezzo. I found it very difficult to shape musically. It's dense and convoluted and more difficult than usual to render on a digital keyboard. In fact the very original Brahms' pedalling across the linebars in order to enrich the harmonic texture sounds a lot artificial on my Kawai.



I thought I was keeping it moving but eventually it lasts more than six minutes, which is in fact a bit on the slow side. Anyhow, I hope that I brought out enough details to justify the relatively broad tempo.

Thank you David! Yes, I worked a lot on the dynamic differentiation in that middle section of No.2.
I'd like hearing very much your interpretation of No.1 if you decided to record it. (But I know you are totally focused on Catoire and Bortkiewicz for the time being.)

oh shoot, I missed that one!



For sure!