Wilhelm Backhaus

biographical notes from Wikipedia

 

Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (March 26, 1884 – July 5, 1969) was a German pianist and pedagogue.

Born in Leipzig, Backhaus studied at the conservatoire in Leipzig with Alois Reckendorf until 1899, later taking private lessons with Eugen d'Albert in Frankfurt am Main. He made his first concert tour at the age of sixteen. In 1905 he won the Anton Rubinstein Competition with Béla Bartók taking second place. He toured widely throughout his life - in 1921 he gave seventeen concerts in Buenos Aires in less than three weeks. Backhaus made his U.S. debut on January 5, 1912, as soloist in Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra. In 1930 he moved to Lugano and became a citizen of Switzerland. He died in Villach in Austria where he was to play in a concert.

Backhaus was particularly well known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and romantic music such as that by Johannes Brahms. He was also much admired as a chamber musician.

According to some critics, Backhaus was one of the first modern artists of the keyboard (see Alfred Cortot for his antithesis) and played with a clean, spare, and objective style. In spite of this analytic approach, his performances are full of feeling. One of the first pianists to leave recordings, he had a long career on the concert stage and in the studio and left us a great legacy. He recorded virtually the complete works of Beethoven and a large quantity of Mozart and Brahms, and he was also the first to record the Chopin etudes, in 1928; this is still widely regarded as one of the best recordings. Backhaus plays them smoothly and softly, overcoming their technical challenges without apparent effort. A live recording from 1953 includes seven of the Etudes, Op. 25 and shows the changes that occurred in his playing style over the years. His technical command is the same, but he is more relaxed and confident and more willing to let the music speak for itself.

His 1939 recording of Brahms' Waltzes, Op. 39, runs just over thirteen minutes; it is difficult to imagine anyone actually dancing to this version, but it is exhilarating nevertheless. His studio recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas, made in the 1960s, display awesome technique for a man in his seventies, as do the two Brahms concertos from about the same time. His live Beethoven recordings are in some ways even better, freer and more vivid

His chamber music recordings include Brahms's cello sonatas, with Pierre Fournier, and Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet with the International Quartet and Claude Hobday.

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Backhaus

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2

musical notes from Wikipedia

 

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. Brahms began it in 1878 and completed the piece in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen.

 

Background

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B-flat), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (2 B-flat bass, 2 F bass), 2 trumpets (B-flat), timpani (B-flat and F), and strings.

The piece is in four movements, rather than the three typical of concertos in the Classical and Romantic periods:

1. Allegro non troppo (B-flat major)
2. Allegro appassionato (D minor)
3. Andante (B-flat major/F-sharp major)
4. Allegretto grazioso (B-flat major)

The additional movement results in a concerto considerably lengthier than most other concertos written up to that time. Upon its completion, Brahms sent its score to his friend, the surgeon and violinist Theodore Billroth to whom Brahms had dedicated his first two string quartets, describing the work as "some little piano pieces". Brahms even described the stormy and impassioned scherzo as a "little wisp of a scherzo."

The premiere of this concerto was given in Budapest on November 9, 1881, with Brahms as soloist, and was an immediate and great success. He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.

 

Description

 

Allegro non troppo

The first movement is in the concerto variant of sonata form. The main theme is introduced with a horn solo, with the piano interceding. The woodwind instruments proceed to introduce a small motif before an unusually placed cadenza appears. The full orchestra repeats the theme and introduces more motifs in the orchestral exposition. The piano and orchestra work together to develop these themes in the piano exposition before the key changes to F Minor (from F Major, the dominant) and the piano plays a powerful and difficult section before the next orchestral tutti appears. The development, like many such sections in the Classical period, works its way from the dominant key back to the tonic while heavily developing themes. At the beginning of the recapitulation, the theme is replayed before a differing transition is heard, returning to the music heard in the piano exposition (this time in B-flat Major / B-flat Minor). A coda appears after the minor key section, finishing off this movement.

 

Allegro appassionato

This scherzo is in the key of D Minor and is in ternary form. Contrary to Brahms's "tiny wisp of a scherzo" remark, it is a tumultuous movement. The piano and orchestra introduce the theme and develop it before a quiet section intervenes. Soon afterwards the piano and orchestra launch into a stormy development of the theme before coming to the central episode (in D major). The central episode is brisk and begins with the full orchestra before yet another quiet section intervenes; then the piano is integrated into the orchestral effect to repeat the theme of the central episode. The beginning section returns but is highly varied.

 

Andante

The slow movement is in the tonic key of B-flat Major and is unusual in that it utilizes a cello solo. Brahms rewrote the cello's theme and changed into a song, Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer. This movement is clearly similar to chamber music.

 

Allegretto grazioso

The concluding movement is in sonata-rondo form, opening with an elegant theme. The second section is not in the typical dominant key (F Major) but is in A Minor, which is the leading tone. Again, the piano is integrated into the orchestral effect. The theme returns but is slowly dissolved into the central episode, where the solo displays more virtuosity. The main theme returns again, and soon after the first half of the rondo is played again before a coda concludes this massive work.

 

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Brahms)