Brahms - Piano Quartet 2 [Domus] Another one of Brahms's Piano Quartets from this excellent set by Domus, a month ago i wrote about his First Quartet [15th July 2011], now it's time to turn towards the Second, the Second Quartet is the only one of the three that is written in a major key [in A Major], it's also the longest of the three [nearly 50 minutes on this recording], all of the movements last more than ten minutes, the First Quartet was almost orchestral in nature [Schoenberg made an orchestral version of it], the Second Quartet is more low key and personal.
The Domus Piano Quartet are a group from England, they get their name from a curious portable dome that they used in their concerts, they were established in 1979 and then disbanded in 1995, the booklet artwork is a painting by Henri Le Sidaner called 'Le Dimanche' [The Sunday], usually i shy away from paintings as CD covers, but this is actually a lovely painting, wonderful light coming in from the back of the girls, a really nice disc set to own.
The huge first movement Allegro Non Troppo is the best, the opening tune is delightful, something Dvorak would have done, a lovely singing melody for solo piano [0:00-0:12], but taken up by the strings [0:20-0:30], and eventually hammered out by the piano [0:58+], a lovely triptych of presentations, there's something really Slavic about the whole thing, and this whole section explodes in again four minutes in [4:04-4:58+], i'm sure it's actually an exposition repeat, and it's a lovely restatement, there's another restatement two thirds of the way through [10:40+], and again as a sort of coda near the end [15:02+], this time played delicately in the treble, with tinkling piano, everything revolves around this theme, a lovely idea from Brahms.
Here's Ralf Gothoni and friends playing the first movement on YouTube.
