Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. His music for piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and voice remains central to the concert repertoire.
He wrote across the major forms of his age: piano works from the early sonatas to the late intermezzi and rhapsodies; chamber music including the clarinet sonatas and the horn trio; four symphonies; concertos; and a large body of Lieder, choral music and folk-song arrangements, crowned by A German Requiem.
A virtuoso pianist, he often introduced his own scores. Self-critical to a fault, he destroyed many drafts and withheld others from publication. His craft is grounded in Baroque counterpoint and Classical developmental practice, yet the harmony and melody are unmistakably Romantic. That blend of rigour and expressive freedom has kept the music in constant circulation, from intimate piano pieces and song to the great orchestral and choral canvases.
Compositions by Johannes Brahms appear on
Brahms Cello
Zoe Knighton and Amir Farid present their seventh cello–piano collaboration, turning to Johannes Brahms. The programme pairs his two cello sonatas with three songs in which the cello takes the vocal line wordlessly.
Mirabile in Prague
Australian composer John Allan presents five of his own orchestral works alongside his orchestrations of Debussy and Brahms piano pieces. David Kram conducts members of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Johannes Brahms: Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Prepare to be swept away by the soulful and powerful performance of Johannes Brahms' Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5, as played by the incomparable Ronald Farren-Price. Farren-Price's mastery of the piano is evident in his interpretation of this masterpiece, showcasing the intricacies of Brahms' composition.
Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Canberra 1987
This live recording of pianist Geoffrey Tozer was made in June 1987, during a series of four recitals marking his twenty-fifth anniversary as a performer.
Veiled Virtuosity
Amir Farid’s debut solo recording, made after his win at the 2006 Australian National Piano Award, ranges from Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata and works by Brahms, Liszt and Prokofiev to Australian scores by Stuart Greenbaum and Carl Vine, with two pieces by Iranian composer Javad Maroufi.
Organ Miniatures
A collection of 33 short organ works on the 1882 T.C. Lewis organ at St George’s Uniting Church, East St Kilda. The programme samples music written for small pipe organs and harmoniums, from Baroque chorales to twentieth-century miniatures.
Wordless Meanings
In the beginning there was harmony – before anyone asked “What sort of music do you play?”, before everyone grew too busy to listen, before music became ‘the industry’. Somewhere along the way, harmony was lost in a cacophony of meaningless words.
The Star of the Sea
A superb programme of Italian and French organ favourites, shaped to draw on every resource of the celebrated George Fincham grand organ at St Mary's Star-of-the-Sea, West Melbourne.
Acts of Homage
Acclaimed pianist Ian Holtham marks the centenary of Brahms’s death and the bicentenary of Schubert’s birth. The programme sets Schubert’s late impromptus beside Brahms’s Handel Variations and late piano pieces, with Godowsky’s song transcriptions as a further homage.
Bon Voyage!
Igor and Olga Piano Duo's debut album charts a piano-four-hands itinerary from Bernstein's America through Brahms, Rachmaninov, Gavrilin, Ravel and Moszkowski to Grainger's Faeroese dance.
Historic Organs of the Barossa Valley, Vol. 2
Christopher Dearnley and John Stiller play seven historic Lutheran church organs of South Australia’s Barossa Valley in the second volume of this survey.
O Come All Ye Faithful
A Melbourne choir under Faye Dumont, whose Christmas programme shows variety and finesse as part of its charter.
A Recital of organ music from St. Paul's Cathedral Melbourne
The works on this recording span some eighty years of organ writing. Three come from the latter half of the nineteenth century; the remaining three were written in the first half of the twentieth.
True Romantics
In True Romantics, clarinettist Philip Arkinstall and pianist Kristian Chong bring lyrical warmth to Brahms’s Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120, and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 22, here in Roger Young’s clarinet transcription.
Liquid Crystal
Clarinetist Luke Carbon and pianist Alex Raineri offer a varied duo programme spanning Brahms, Berg, Beach, Bernstein and Elliott Gyger, framed as a personal mixtape of cherished clarinet and piano works.
Over Under
Over Under is the debut album of cellist Luke Severn and pianist–composer Evan Fein as a duo, the fruit of five years of shared touring, writing and close artistic exchange.
Lotus Dreams
Soprano Shu-Cheen Yu and pianist Katherine Day present eighteen favourite songs and ballads, from Brahms and Schubert to Chinese and Irish folk airs, a personal path through Lieder and art song.
Matthew Kam introduces the new Schimmel K 230
A wide-ranging solo programme opens with Brahms’s demanding Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel. Matthew Kam and the Schimmel K 230 meet its musical and technical challenges with striking tonal beauty and colour.
Team of Pianists presents the Schimmel K 256
Australia’s Team of Pianists inaugurates Schimmel’s Artist Collection on the new K 256 concert grand, with Brahms duets, Romantic and Impressionist solos, Saint-Saëns with clarinet, and Carl Vine.
Josquin to Martin
A miscellany spanning High and Late Renaissance motets and nineteenth- and twentieth-century sacred works, drawn from Ensemble Gombert’s first European tour in 2004. The programme was chosen to complement Hommage à Gombert, then in production, with Gombert, Lassus and Monteverdi.
Sparkling Keys
Sparkling Keys celebrates the creative partnership of the National Trust and the Team of Pianists. Over a decade that partnership produced Twilight Chamber Music at Rippon Lea and concerts at Como, Labassa, Illawarra and Barwon Park.
Sing to the Lord, ye Heavenly Hosts
The Choir of The Scots' Church offers sacred music from sixteenth-century Palestrina to twenty-first-century Australian composer Andrew Batterham, crowned by a rare performance of Widor's Mass for choir, baritone choir and two organs.
Homage to Brahms
A handsome recital paying homage to Brahms, with two-piano variations, late Intermezzi, the G major Violin Sonata, and the complete Liebeslieder Walzer.
Pianists of Excellence
The Team of Pianists is acclaimed in Europe and Australia for vitality and freshness of technique. This recital presents solo piano works by Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms and Sculthorpe, played by four of its members.