Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3

“I don’t think there is any other composer who has such an account in terms of quality”, says Krystian Zimerman. “All Brahms’s chamber music is fantastic – the sonatas, the trios, the Clarinet Quintet. There is no bad piece among them.”

Krystian Zimerman’s passion for chamber music goes back to his childhood and has accompanied him ever since. He states, “every great composer wrote some kind of quartet with piano. It’s a fantastic richness of music history that is often underestimated.”

Although Johannes Brahm’s No. 1 in G minor is the best known of his three piano quartets, Zimerman instead focuses on the sometimes-overlooked Piano Quartets No. 2 and No. 3 in order to give them the attention they deserve. He adds, “I particularly love the Third Quartet. It’s crazy. It’s so powerful. It has unbelievable drive.”

For this recording Krystian Zimerman teamed up with cellist Yuya Okamoto, violinist Maria Nowak and violist Katarzyna Budnik. 

The press praised recital in 2023 as “… a performance of these two works that commands admiration, melding authority and subtlety in a typically Brahmsian blend of passionate outbursts and melancholy lyricism” (ResMusica) 

Tracklisting:

Vinyl

LP 1

Side A

Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
1.           I. Allegro non troppo
2.           II. Scherzo. Allegro 

Side B

3.           III. Andante
4.           IV. Finale. Allegro comodo

LP 2

Side A

Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
5.           I. Allegro non troppo
6.           II. Poco Adagio

Side B

7.           III. Scherzo. Poco Allegro
8.           IV. Finale. Allegro