Search - Johannes Brahms, Andre Previn, Horacio Gutierrez :: Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Variations on a Theme by Haydn for Orchestra Op. 56a

The finest performance I've heard.

D. R. Schryer | Poquoson, VA United States | 07/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Horacio Gutierrez has a special ability to give beautiful performances of the big virtuoso piano concertos of the Romantic era. Although his virtuosity is staggering, it is matched by his artistic sensitivity. His performance of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 is simply gorgeous, surpassing every other performance I've ever heard -- including the legendary performance by Serkin and Szell. I beg you to get this superb recording."

Eloquent refinement!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 03/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Horacio Gutierrez is recognized pianist all over the world. His style is an accurate balance between refinement, expressiveness and vibrant intensity.



This is a very hard to play Concert. There are many obstacles to surpass along the score. It demands from the player a complete involvement, it 's a passionate, romantic, lyric and meditative musical canvas that anticipates visibly the autumnal character of his famous Fourth Symphony. Gutierrez possesses a fabulous technique and the necessary imagination to execute the lucidness and adequate flexibility in phrasing.



Many pianists have found his own Waterloo at the moment to play this exigent Concert. Many of them are accustomed to play Brahms as if he was only a simple appendix of the Romantic Schumann. The work presents passages that must be played with a previous mind conception. As a matter of fact, I think we are on front of the last Romantic Concerto of the XIX Century; I mean this special fact is not only the last stage of an Artistic Movement; besides it constitutes the transition between two musical currents; and somehow the construction and destruction of certain previous patterns, due every new expression demands the destruction of the previous one.



The conception of late Romanticism must not be understood as embossment or reaffirmation but the beginning of new times to come. That would be extremely to think about at that historical moment, but keeping in mind the elapsed time, this piece should express the precognition and future anguish for the time to come. That means the future must consider itself as a simple continuation of the present, and not as the New Illusion of the progress.



Gutierrez plays this superb work keeping in mind the previous statement. You can feel a certain Mahlerian anguish, without losing the romantic approach.



Go for this recording. Absolutely gratifying.





"