Octo_Russ

Brahms - 6 Piano Pieces - Op118 [Donohoe]

I bought this disc for the main work, Brahms's huge First Piano Concerto, and i spoke about my experiences with it in my Blog last July [25th July 2011], in contrast to the universal message of that Concerto, these short piano pieces are more personal and individual, they're charming and sweet, and at other times are searching and probing, Brahms's solo piano music is well worth getting to know, and this work is an excellent starting point.

Peter Donohoe is English, now 58 years old, he made this recording in 1990, well it was of course the work [and the Artist] that first attracted me to this disc, but also the cover! [photo by Tobi Corney], green is my favourite colour, and this is a silhouette with a green tinge to it, nice white background to make the black stand out, and white and yellow lettering, i really like it a lot.

On this recording the work lasts roughly 24 minutes [that's roughly 4 minutes a piece], enough time to weave something substantial, but not so long as to meander all over the place, on this listen i found myself drawn to the Fifth Piano Piece, it's entitled 'Romance', it's just simply gorgeous, the 'theme' is gently tolled out twice [0:00-0:44], and what an utterly soothing tune it is, and then with slight variation tolled out twice more [0:44-1:29], and it's this third time that sounds just so convincing, and then there's a central faster section, with happier music [1:30-2:45], with some nicely judged trills, but of course the opening returns in splendour [3:04+] and the second tolling is also the coda [3:24+], and here the music becomes more impassioned and louder for a short while, a nice satisfying end to a lovely piece of music. 

Here's Tal-Haim Salmnon playing the Fifth Piano Piece on YouTube.