Search - Brahms, Guy :: Piano Sonatas 2 & 3

Composed by a twenty-something genius and played by another

06/30/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brahms was completely unknown when he wrote this music.He had embarked on a not too succesfull tour of the Rhineland and decided to continue on to Dresden where he was permitted to call on Robert and Clara Schumann.To the utter suprise of everyone and to the embarassment of the young Brahms the eminent couple, on hearing the composer play these works, proclaimed him a genius.Schumann set about letting the world know by writing the following in his newspaper:"We were drawn into a circle of ever growing magic...transforming the piano into an orchestra of mourning and rejoicing voices.There were sonatas,or rather veiled symphonies-songs whose poetry one could understand without knowing the words..."The sad irony about this visit and about the Third Sonata in particular is that when Schumann became ill and died,Brahms found he was in love with Clara-an impossible situation and one which was a constant theme of his life until both died many years later within weeks of each other.In this music we have the fire of youth,heroic striving and moments of the saddest poetry.In the F major sonata a poem of love is shattered by a "backward glance" and capped with a glorious symphonic summation. Since all this was in the future when he played this music for the Schumanns how did he krow what was to happen?Perhaps a persons fate is part of them and can be felt, like music, even though it is not known.It is the fate of Francois Frederic Guy to be one of the great pianists,even though this is his first solo classical recording.The warm acoustic of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace is captured to perfection by the adventurous independent label Meridian."