Capriccios & Intermezzos Nada & Brahms

Capriccios & Intermezzos is the fourth album in a series of five by Pianist Nada of Johannes Brahms works for solo piano.

In this fourth album, Nada’s extended study of Brahms’ works led her to feel as if she knows him intimately. She recorded Capriccios & Intermezzos — a 25-track double CD album in the series to give the listener insight into his range of works.

Liner Notes:

Do you know how many faces there are for the composer Johannes Brahms?

How many sides to his personality?

I chose to call this recording “Capriccios & Intermezzos” to display the wonderful variety and array of colors and moods in his music: passion/reflection, power/sweetness, brilliance/intimacy, craziness/centeredness, organization/wilderness.

I start in a deeply spiritual and reflective atmosphere with two of his chorales for organ Op. 122, which I adapted for piano, followed by the first set of Capriccios and Intermezzos Op. 76, composed at the mature age of 45 years old. By then he abandons the large scale form for the piano and focuses on the musical moment.

An Intermezzo is usually slow, a Capriccio fast, somehow similar to the contrasted character of Eusebius and Florestan in Schumann’s music. Little sensitive and tender gems are interposed with passionately powerful moments. In many ways, it reminds us of the duality in human nature.

The double side of Brahms is always kept in check by his extreme sense of organization reflected in his larger compositions, such as the Sonata. The Sonata No. 2 Op. 2 is in fact his first, the one he played for Schumann who exclaimed: “This is music like I’ve never heard before!”

At the time Johannes was still called “Hannes.” He was boyish and youthful looking, unfitting the maturity of the incredible writing in this piece. In fact, its modernity could make it a direct contemporary to Paul Dukas’ “Sonata” written half a century later. It will be hard for anyone to bring much more to the piano sonata form after Brahms.

From the extroverted “Sonata” of 1852 to his most intimate expression, the Intermezzos, Op. 117 of 1892, we have the brilliant dances, where the Hungarian idiom is totally integrated as his own. Ten were transcribed by the composer for piano solo only and were published in 1872 under no opus number. They transcend the piano sound into unmatched symphonic proportions.

Variations are a natural way of writing music for Brahms. Here are two sets from his youth, fresh with so much inspiration and imagination. He signed his Op. 9 “Johannes Kreisler,” inspired by the strong romantic movement sweeping through Germany. The variations on the slow movement of his own Sextet Op. 18, a masterly transcription for the piano, were published after his death.

There is no doubt he was a magnificent pianist when you encounter the difficulties of his piano etudes. Based on texts from other composers, they are the opposite of showing off. They aim at conquering technical challenges at the service of music.

Still deeply unknown to the world, the composer Johannes Brahms is and should be considered one of our greatest composers ever.

From my experience as a performer and radio host, I like to bring an audience close to me. Much of this repertoire was written for halls smaller than what we have now. I love the fact my listeners can feel I am in their living room rather than far away on the concert stage. This explains my preference for a natural sound without any artificial artifacts, such as reverb or mixing. I hope that by sharing music from a more personal point of view, I will bring more people to love and feel the music as I deeply live it.

Pianist Nada
2018

“ . . . a true Brahms advocate. . .”
— Audiophile Audition

Title: Capriccios & Intermezzos Nada & Brahms
Catalog #: C-6-2017

Release date: 2017
UPC: 707129224088
©2017 MEII Enterprises/BMI