Search - Johannes Brahms; Cesar Franck; Franz Liszt, Kirk Trevor, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra :: Brahms: Piano Concerto No.2; Franck; Liszt

As the classical concerto evolved into a showpiece for traveling virtuosi in the nineteenth century, it gradually lost its pre-eminence in the world of serious instrumental music. Only in the late romantic period did it regain its stature but it did so by evolving, sometimes drastically. All three of the composers recorded here by Joshua Pierce were also keyboard performers but all of them built a public on their own terms: Liszt as a piano wizard and matinee idol in the mode first established by the violinist Paganini; Franck as an improvising organist on the great Parisian romantic instruments of his day; and Brahms as a neo-classical virtuoso, the public master not of showmanship, but of large-scale symphonic form combined with depth of expression.