Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms

Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms is the first album in a series of five by Pianist Nada of Johannes Brahms works for solo piano.

Included in this first album are:

Hungarian variations: I start this recorded recital feeling the Hungarian blood boil in me! So much fun to play and compose! The tune, based on an irregular meter, comes from Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi, Brahms’ first concert partner in Hamburg. After exploring it in variations, it switches to two beats in a brilliant Czardas displaying the formidable pianism of the young Johannes Brahms.

Chaconne: A common exercise for Eduard Marxsen in Hamburg, the most important influence Hannes’ education, was to transcribe for the left hand other works from respected composers. While playing this “miraculous" music, I felt as a violinist in a monument to an infinity of imagination.

Chorales: For the first time recorded at the piano, I selected three chorales written only for the manual of the organ. In the first one, the continual drawing of the sixteen notes represents the ornaments of the soul getting ready for another world. The second chorale stops on the word "prison" with a sense of impossible escape. The third, with its tender lines and harmonization, is sung for Christmas, a holiday the composer never skipped in his whole life. He always had been drawn to the organ. The op. 122 is his last work, a testament to life and death.

Sonata: Although not his first attempt at the piano sonata, he wanted this one to be published as his Op. 1. A grand entrance into the world, the first movement opens as the "Hammerklavier" by Beethoven. The Finale takes the same pattern creating an amazing sense of unity. Full of passion, already displaying what his musical language was capable of, this work, from the beginning to the end, has no time for any weakness; in the middle, a simply varied old song is followed by a fierce scherzo. Dukas' piano Sonata (1900), on my first CD (1997, Brahms's death anniversary), comes in this lineage of monumental sonatas.

Etude: As an encore, the famous impromptu with its light scales of the right hand, is now reversed to the left hand in an ingenious and wonderful way.

Aware of the lighter pianos the young Brahms had under his hands in Hamburg, I could feel the reason for many shorter accentuations, such as staccato, and that pedaling heavily on our modern instruments could overload and misrepresent how the sound was imagined at the time of composition.

Hamburg with its spirit of travel and openness to the world, confirmed my sense of strength, drive and survival that was part of Johannes Brahms’ inner essence and personality. I hope the listener will feel this as well.

Nada
May 2016

“This all-Brahms recital reveals an artist with a real affinity for the composer’s style.”
─ Gary Lemco
Audiophile Audition

“Nada’s playing is quite something, and lovers of Brahms should be eager to hear a pianist with a special affinity for the full range of his piano music. Highly recommended.”
─Paul Orgel
Fanfare, The Magazine of Serious Record Collectors

“The Brahms CD from pianist Nada (Loutfi) is sublime! An understanding coming straight from the heart. A fabulous technique at the service of the deepest human expression! A great musician! A great CD!”
─Composer Bechara El Khoury (France)

“Nada (Loutfi) plays Brahms with elegance!…Intensive musicality and harmony. Superb technique, clarity and sensibility.”
─Composer/Director, Marwan Rahbani
(Rahbani Productions, Dubai, UAE)

“Nada’s interpretations. . .reveals the depth of poetry in Brahms’ music, and even makes it her own, in a uniquely insightful way—she brings out nuances and subtleties that are not always encountered in this music, and all of that is due to her artistry.”
─ Nick Peros
Phoenix Classical, Canada

Title: Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms
Catalog #: C-3-2016

Release date: 2016
UPC: 0026143930
©2016 MEII Enterprises/BMI