Search - Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Domus Ensemble :: Brahms: Piano Quartets

Voluptuous music and glorious ensemble

Robert L. Berkowitz | Natick, MA United States | 03/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am an avid fan of Brahms' chamber music. I own many recordings of his violin sonatas, viola sonatas, cello sonatas, piano trios, piano quintet, clarinet quintet and single recordings of the string sextets and string quartets. I purchased this recording in order to have a complete account of the piano quartets so that I could begin to fill in the gaps in my collection. I did not expect that I would end up regarding this recording as among my most favorite Brahms chamber music discs.Brahms' chamber music is so voluptuous in its melody, harmony and couterpoint, and so richly evocative of his emotional world. His music evokes the widest spectrum of emotions ranging all the way from despair, poignancy and resignation to strength, resolve and festive joy. This recording does complete justice to Brahms' world. What stands out in this recording is Domus' absolutely glorious ensemble. These players play as one. Where there are individual contributions, it is clear that these are talented individual instrumentalists. The string players' intonation is perfect and their solos are self-assured and sensitive, but their glory is how well they work together. The performers, the venue and the recorded sound all work together to create such incredible richness and immediacy. It's unfortunate that the sample tracks on this web page do not include the third movement of the 3rd quartet. I continue to listen to that single track over and over again. Once you hear Brahms in this kind of medium, it is difficult to go back to listen to anything with fewer instruments (for example his solo piano works). I purchased another recording of the piano quartets for comparison (Ax, Stern, Laredo and Ma) and I expected to enjoy this recording more than the Domus recording as I am an avid admirer of each of these musicians. I came away preferring the Domus recording. This is a 2-disc set. The first disc contains the 1st and 3rd piano quartets, while the 2nd disc contains the 2nd piano quartet and a movement of an unfinished quartet by Mahler. The Mahler piece is interesting for its historical value, but the real worthwhile pieces are the Brahms works. It is possible to get just the first disc of this set, but you pay full price for it. This set is available at a budget price and includes all the piano quartets. I recommend this 2-disc set in the strongest terms. Knowing what I now know about it, I would have paid full price for it."

Brahms Well Served by Domus

Robert L. Berkowitz | 04/27/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Brahms seems to achieve two very different ends in his music that exploits the minor keys. In compositions such as the First Symphony or the Piano Quintet, the minor key is used for dramatic effect. This is especially clear in the First Symphony, which follows the tried-and-true model of Beethoven's Fifth, with its progress from darkness to light and victory. With Brahms, the program is not very clear (not even so much as Beethoven's gloss for the Fifth Symphony's motto figure: "Thus fate knocks at the door"), but the drama is palpable nonetheless. On the other hand, in movements such as the passacaglia from the last movement of the Fourth Symphony, the minor key brings a sense of gravity that is truly tragic. Certainly this can be said of Brahms's C minor Piano Quartet. In fact, if Brahms did not provide a definite program for the high-strung first movement, at least he offered a literary parallel, telling early performers of the work that he had in mind a portrait of Young Werther, the hero of Goethe's novel, who blows his brains out for unrequited love. Behind the stormy passions of this tragic first movement is the history of Brahms's failed love affair with Clara Schumann. It's a devastating musical portrait, magnificently sustained. The movement builds slowly to a great, quasi-symphonic climax at the start of the development section. Domus prepares this climax perfectly, unleashing it with all the fury and anguish it should have. In fact, they are in touch with all the emotions of this work, including the cooler, more Olympian drama of the scherzo, one of Brahms's very best, where the play of minor and major keys is like that of some lithe forest creatures chasing through sunlight and shadow. Maybe I wax too romantic here, but this is a beautiful movement and a beautiful performance of it. So, too, with the achingly nostalgic slow movement and the subdued passion of the finale. Gorgeous music beautifully played. Despite the huge popularity of the First Piano Quartet, in a performance like this it's clear the Third Quartet is the great work among Brahms's Quartets. In fact, I find it more commanding overall than the celebrated Piano Quintet, whose drama seems canned by comparison. The Quintet has always struck me (...)unsubtle, especially compared to this wonderful Third Quartet.But the First Quartet is wonderfully entertaining, especially that gypsy finale, and Domus give it their all, too, in a performance and recording that are generally excellent, except that the piano seems occasionally to get swallowed in the reverberant acoustic, which tends only to beautify the playing of the other instruments. This is especially true in the last movement of Quartet No. 1, though it's something of a problem throughout the quartet. Still, the sound that Domus produces is both ample and homogeneous, unlike that of some more stellar quartets, who can't seem to help sounding like the individual stars the members are. This homogeneity also helps create a suave rendition of the Second Quartet, the Cinderella of the Brahms piano quartet canon, here given a lovely reading that makes a compelling case for this less assertive work, whose sixteen-minute first movement and ten-and-a-half-minute scherzo recall Schubert in temperament, melodic fecundity--and indifference to structural conciseness.The early Mahler Quartet Movement is an interesting rarity and a nice makeweight for the second CD (the two disks together offer a very ample 137 minutes' worth of music). In fact, it's rather reminiscent of the first movement of Brahms's C Minor Quartet since Mahler, like Brahms, waits for the development section to unleash the decibels; it's all pretty restrained till then. But you won't return to this little piece often. No, you'll stick with the Brahms Quartets and, I think, enjoy them all thanks to Domus' superlative music-making. I also believe you'll agree with me that far and away the greatest of the Quartets is No. 3. Domus helps make that abundantly clear."

A desert island CD set of mine

Keli Song | Boston, MA, USA | 02/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been really grateful for the previous reviewers' comments on this CD set, for all I wanted to praise Domus performance of Brahms piano quartets is to repeat what the two reviewers already said, except some of my personal experience with these Domus recordings. I've loved these recordings for more than 13 years since the first time I heard them. At that time, these recordings were issued as a format of two single CDs, each sold at a premium CD price. Now, at $11 for the two, it's a generous gift for people who love this excellent level of music making. I own several versions of these piano quartets, such as those by Ax, Stern, Laredo and Ma group, Beaux Arts Trio and Trampler group, Guarneri Quartet and Rubinstein group, Amadeus Quartet and Giles group, and Amadeus Quartet and Perahia group. Listening comparison of these versions gave me three versions that I usually choose to listen to: the one by Domus (complete piano quartets), the one by Beaux Arts Trio and Trampler (complete piano quartets), and the one by Amadeus Quartet and Perahia (piano quartet no. 1 only). Nevertheless, each round listening to all the three versions, Domus version always stands out highly to my liking, and is the one that gives me endless touching power."