Day 338: Hungarian Dances 1-10, Five Piano Studies

BrahmsCD32The first of today’s music sounds like Liberace – you know, all those little flourishes at the end of a “sentence.”

Here’s what I listened to today:

Hungarian Dances for piano solo

According to its entry on Wikipedia, these were composed in 1869. Brahms was 36.

Five Piano Studies Op. Anh. 1a/1

According to the AllMusic web site,

These pieces are merely arrangements of well-known works for the piano for use as studies in technique. They are masterly done, and valuable technical studies, but hardly intended for nor effective in performance.

They were composed in 1869. Brahms was 36.

Here’s who played it:

Louis Dementrius Alvanis piano

Overall, I’d say I agree with the summary on AllMusic – about most of the music on Brahms CD 32. The latter performances (Five Piano Studies), are fairly interesting. They held my attention.

Most of the time.

Day 331: Hungarian Dances (Piano Four Hands)

BrahmsCD25Today’s CD of Hungarian Dances written for four-hand piano was recorded in 1956 and features the legendary Alfred Brendel as one pair of hands and Walter Klien as the other pair.

Musically, it doesn’t get much better than this. The performances are sublime.

Sonically, there’s a lot of tape hiss. Not to the point of distraction. But one can definitely tell this recording is nearly 60 years old.

There are 21 tracks on this, the 25th of 58 CDs in the Brahms Complete Edition from Brilliant Classics.

I’m going to award this a Favorite Brhams CD designation for two reasons:

1. Alfred Brendel
2. It makes Brahms sound livelier and more interesting than he has been to this point

This music is perfect for passive listening while writing, reading, or thinking. And it sounds good enough for active listening as well. I’m really enjoying these little snippets of music.

From its
entry on Wikipedia:

The Hungarian Dances (German: Ungarische Tänze) by Johannes Brahms (WoO 1), are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1869.

They vary from about a minute to four minutes in length. They are among Brahms’s most popular works, and were certainly the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four-hands and later arranged the first 10 dances for solo piano.

Only numbers 11, 14 and 16 are entirely original compositions. The most famous Hungarian Dance is No. 5 in F♯ minor, but even this dance was based on the csárdás by Béla Kéler titled “Bártfai emlék” which Brahms mistakenly thought was a traditional folksong.

If these were composed in 1869 (the IMSLP web site suggests a much later date), then Brahms was 36.

Day 312: Hungarian Dances

BrahmsCD6I like this CD.

Often, Brahms seems to take a while to get something going. He eases into his compositions.

But Hungarian Dances is like a thoroughbred lunging out of the chute from the get-go.

I’m willing to bet all of the Hungarian music you’ve heard over the years is right here. I’ve heard bits and pieces of this music most of my life, usually in movie soundtracks. Maybe TV shows.

It’s beautiful, lush music that evokes tremendous emotions.

There are 21 tracks on Brahms CD 6. Every one is well played, well recorded, and worth listening to.

The musicians on today’s CD are:

London Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi, conductor

According to its entry on Wikipedia:

The Hungarian Dances (German: Ungarische Tänze) by Johannes Brahms (WoO 1), are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1869.

They vary from about a minute to four minutes in length. They are among Brahms’s most popular works, and were certainly the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four-hands and later arranged the first 10 dances for solo piano.

Only numbers 11, 14 and 16 are entirely original compositions. The most famous Hungarian Dance is No. 5 in F♯ minor, but even this dance was based on the csárdás by Béla Kéler titled “Bártfai emlék” which Brahms mistakenly thought was a traditional folksong.

Brahms was 36 when these dance songs were completed.