Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Strauss: Burleske

Albumbeschreibung

Named Young Artist of the Year by the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards and the International Classical Music Award in 2014 and 2015, young German pianist Joseph Moog (* 1987) has pursued a magnificent international career whose only "black spot" is France, where, God knows why, we've hardly heard of him, even though he has performed across Europe and North America. Since 2007 he has recorded nearly a dozen albums, which have been roundly hailed by critics and the public, which cover all the standard repertoires – Liszt, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Grieg – as well as some rarer ones – Moszkowski, Busoni, Friedmann, Godowsky, Joseph Jongen, Reger and Scharwenka. This album covers both sorts: Brahms's Second Concerto, recorded half to death, by hundreds of pianists; and the very rare and delectable Burlesque by Strauss, a minor masterpiece written in 1886 but not performed until 1890 (by Eugen d'Albert, no less), in a much re-worked arrangement, which is the only one to survive to the present day. Humour in music was a rare thing in the late 19th Century - whereas the Mozarts and Haydns would deploy it with glee - and Strauss was able to masterfully inject a dose of lightheartedness and farce into his manuscript, with outrageous harmonic sequences, popular allusions, and parody. And it is a sure thing that he held this particular score in high esteem, as it figured in the last every concert that he directed, in 1947. © SM/Qobuz