Balladen op. 10 / Rhapsodien op. 79 (SACD)

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Anyone wishing to engage with Johannes Brahms' piano music must first let go of any notion of virtuosic brilliance or superficial effects and subordinate themselves to the depths of the composer's emotional world. In the case of Brahms, a series of questions that form only one of several important interpretative criteria for other composers emerge as the performer's principal task: What emotions are expressed in the score? How does the musical structure hold it all together? What are the interconnections between the motives? How much interpretative freedom is required or, in some places, permitted? These questions arise almost everywhere in the score, which makes playing his music so very exciting and fulfilling. Brahms places exceptionally high demands on the performer, and yet, the greatest difficulty lies in navigating the tension between the overwhelming emotional intensity on the one hand and an ever-present clarity of form on the other. As a member of the award-winning Tecchler Trio, the Swiss pianist Benjamin Engeli has become a sought-after chamber music partner and song accompanist in all-imaginable formations worldwide. Even when he plays alone, he always plays outstandingly, which he proves on this, his first solo album.