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Brahms Early and Late Piano Works
Johannes Brahms

Llŷr Williams

Brahms Early and Late Piano Works

Price: € 22.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212091623
Catnr: SIGCD 916
Release date: 01 November 2024
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2 CD
€ 22.95
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212091623
Catalogue number
SIGCD 916
Release date
01 November 2024
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

His 16th album with Signum Classics, the Welsh pianist, Llŷr Williams, brings a profound musical intelligence to his work as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. His new album of compositions by Johannes Brahms offers a comprehensive exploration of Brahms' introspective and expressive piano works. In addition the album features Variations on a theme by R Schumann, Op 9 – harking back to Williams’ celebrated album of works by Robert Schumann (SIGCD756) released in January 2024. ★★★★ “… the performances are always immaculate, their working out totally lucid; it’s unquestionably thoughtful, authoritative playing.” – The Guardian. Llŷr Williams’ long and successful collaboration with Signum Records includes the 8-disc box-set ‘A Schubert Journey’ (2020), the 12-volume ‘Beethoven Unbound’ (2018), a ‘Wagner Without Words’ double album (2014) and highlights from Liszt’s ‘Années de pèlerinage‘ (2012).

Artist(s)

Llŷr Williams (piano)

Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence, and for the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. He has performed with all the major UK orchestras under conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Jiří Bělohlávek, Carlo Rizzi, Vasily Petrenko, Jaime Martín, Osmo Vänskä, Joseph Swensen, Grant Llewellyn and Jac Van Steen; he has a particularly longstanding relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with which he has in recent seasons performed concertos ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Bartók and Mathias. As a recitalist, Llŷr Williams regularly performs at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Perth Concert Hall, the St David’s and Dora Stoutzker Halls in Cardiff, the Capital Region Classical series in Schenectady, USA, Salle Bourgie in Montreal and the Edinburgh and East Neuk...
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Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence, and for the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. He has performed with all the major UK orchestras under conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Jiří Bělohlávek, Carlo Rizzi, Vasily Petrenko, Jaime Martín, Osmo Vänskä, Joseph Swensen, Grant Llewellyn and Jac Van Steen; he has a particularly longstanding relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with which he has in recent seasons performed concertos ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Bartók and Mathias. As a recitalist, Llŷr Williams regularly performs at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Perth Concert Hall, the St David’s and Dora Stoutzker Halls in Cardiff, the Capital Region Classical series in Schenectady, USA, Salle Bourgie in Montreal and the Edinburgh and East Neuk Festivals. His long association with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama has included acclaimed multi-recital cycles of Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin.
Llŷr Williams has performed as a chamber musician alongside instrumentalists such as Natalie Clein, Tim Hugh, Katarina Nazarova and Rosalind Ventris, and vocal artists including Bryn Terfel, Mark Padmore, Jamie Barton and Andrei Kymach; his particular interest in song repertoire is reflected in his 20-year association as one of the two official pianists of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
The discography of Llŷr Williams reflects his long-standing partnership with Signum Records.
His 2024 album of works by Schumann received great critical acclaim, and was both BBC Radio 3’s ‘Record of the Week’ and ‘Disque du jour’ on France Musique. His previous albums include the 8-disc box-set ‘A Schubert Journey’ (2020), the 12-volume ‘Beethoven Unbound’ (2018), a ‘Wagner Without Words’ double-CD (2014) and highlights from Liszt’s ‘Années de pèlerinage‘ (2012). He has also recorded William Mathias’ second Piano Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as works by Welsh composers for the Tŷ Cerdd label.
A former BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust award recipient, Llŷr Williams was born in Pentrebychan, North Wales, and read music at The Queen’s College, Oxford before taking up a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales. He is also currently Artist-in-Association at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a patron of the Gower Festival, and Associate Artist at the Cowbridge Festival.

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Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the 'Three Bs' of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.   Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become...
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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Disc #1
01.
Klaviersonate in f minor, Op. 5: I. Allegro maestoso
10:56
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
02.
Klaviersonate in f minor, Op. 5: II. Andante espressivo
12:23
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
03.
Klaviersonate in f minor, Op. 5: III. Scherzo: Allegro energico
05:05
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
04.
Klaviersonate in f minor, Op. 5: IV. Intermezzo (Rückblick): Andante molto
03:41
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
05.
Klaviersonate in f minor, Op. 5: V. Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato
07:53
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
06.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No 1 in A minor: Intermezzo
01:57
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
07.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No. 2 in A major: Intermezzo
06:05
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
08.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No. 3 in G minor: Ballade
03:28
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
09.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No. 4 in F minor: Intermezzo
02:50
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
10.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No. 5 in F major: Romance
04:05
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
11.
Klavierstücke Op. 118: No. 6 in E flat minor: Intermezzo
05:37
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
12.
Theme and variations, Op. 18b
10:59
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams

Disc #2
01.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 1 in D minor: Capriccio
02:19
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
02.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 2 in A minor: Intermezzo
03:47
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
03.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 3 in G minor: Capriccio
03:08
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
04.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 4 in E major: Intermezzo
04:36
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
05.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 5 in E minor: Intermezzo
03:20
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
06.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 6 in E major: Intermezzo
03:10
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
07.
Fantasian Op. 116: No 7 in D minor: Capriccio
02:17
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
08.
Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9
19:22
(Robert Schumann) Llŷr Williams
09.
Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117: No 1 in E flat major: Andante moderato
05:36
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
10.
Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117: No 2 in B flat minor: Andante non troppo e con molto espressione
05:03
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
11.
Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117: No 3 in C sharp minor: Andante con moto
06:25
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
12.
Klavierstücke, Op. 119: No 1 in B minor: Intermezzo
03:38
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
13.
Klavierstücke, Op. 119: No 2 in E minor: Intermezzo
04:47
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
14.
Klavierstücke, Op. 119: No 3 in C major: Intermezzo
01:43
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
15.
Klavierstücke, Op. 119: No 4 in E flat major: Rhapsodie
05:17
(Johannes Brahms) Llŷr Williams
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