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Brahms: Sonata No. 3; Variations and Fugue
Johannes Brahms, Anton Kuerti
Brahms: Sonata No. 3; Variations and Fugue
Genre: Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (32) - Disc #1

Anton Kuerti Renowned pianist Anton Kuerti continues a major career offering fresh and exciting interpretations of works from the concerto, recital and chamber music repertoires. He regularly performs to critical acclaim ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Johannes Brahms, Anton Kuerti
Title: Brahms: Sonata No. 3; Variations and Fugue
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Pro-Piano Records
Release Date: 3/18/1997
Genre: Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Forms & Genres, Sonatas, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Romantic (c.1820-1910)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 781988001226

Synopsis

Album Description
Anton Kuerti Renowned pianist Anton Kuerti continues a major career offering fresh and exciting interpretations of works from the concerto, recital and chamber music repertoires. He regularly performs to critical acclaim in music capitals worldwide. Anton Kuerti was born in Austria, grew up in the United States, and now lives in Canada. Still a student when he won the Leventritt Award, his teachers included Arthur Loesser, Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Rudolf Serkin. At the age of 11 he performed the Grieg Concerto with Arthur Fiedler and has maintained a steady presence in the public eye since that time. He is hailed as "one of the truly great pianists of this century" (CD Review, London) and even "the best pianist currently playing" (Fanfare). Mr. Kuerti has toured 30 countries, including most of Europe, Japan, China and Australia, and has performed with major U.S. orchestras and conductors, such as the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony (Menuhin), the Cleveland Orchestra (Szell), the Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy), and the orchestras of Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco. His vast repertoire includes some 50 concertos, including one he composed himself. He also continues to expand his musical activities, spending a portion of his season composing and conducting as well as performing from the keyboard. In Canada, Anton Kuerti has appeared in 110 communities from coast to coast, and has played with every professional orchestra, including 35 concerts with the Toronto Symphony and two European tours with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He was for many years a professor at the University of Toronto, but now devotes himself to performing and composing. He is also noted for his masterclasses, which he has given at numerous institutions including Aspen, the University of Texas, Oberlin, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman, Juilliard and the San Francisco Conservatory, among others. As a chamber musician, he has performed the major repertoire with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Janos Starker, Barry Tuckwell, and the Cleveland, Guarneri, Daniel and Tokyo String Quartets. He was the founder of the Festival of the Sound, in Parry Sound, Ontario, considered a major Canadian music festival. Anton Kuerti is one of today's most recorded artists, having put on disc, to great critical acclaim, all the Beethoven Concertos and Sonatas, the Schubert Sonatas, and works by many other composers. His recordings are frequently heard on international radio broadcasts. With this release, Mr. Kuerti joins the growing artist roster of Pro Piano Records.
 

CD Reviews

Kuerti Disappointing in Brahms 3rd Piano Sonata
J Scott Morrison | 02/22/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)

"The third piano sonata of Brahms is a monumental work, both in conception (five movements) and the big piano sound (particularly in the first movement). The opening makes substantial technical demands on the pianist, requiring leaps up and down the keyboard. Unfortunately, Kuerti plays the music timidly as though it were a reflective work of Schumann. The music demands agressive and risky pianism, but this recording disappoints. The recording by Radu Lupu on London is more satisfying throughout."
I really disagree with the previous reviewer
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)

"What the previous reviewer has called 'timid' I would call 'elegant,' which is a characteristic of all of Kuerti's Brahms recordings. Too many pianists play Brahms with an emphasis on the thick chords--and it's a real temptation because so often those chords have third and sixths in the bass leading many to think that they should be played with bass-emphasis--but Kuerti has the right perspective, I think, in that he recognizes that as important as the bass line is in Brahms, it is the melodies and the counterpoint that are important. I recall that Artur Rubinstein commented that Brahms should be played as if it were by Fauré or Ravel, by which he meant with elegance and with air between the notes. And that's what Kuerti does here. This is an amazingly effective pair of performances. The Handel Variations are among the very best I know. I agree that the Sonata is a little on the light side, but I actually prefer that.



A difference of opinion, I expect, with some validity for both. But I felt I had to add a comment to even up the discussion a bit.



Scott Morrison"