Before it was finally transformed into perhaps the best-known of all Brahms's chamber works, the Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34 had begun life as a quintet for strings alone, its initial inspiration ...

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Their own standpoint ranges freely from the tense to the tractable, the rhythm of the music always under control, tone sinewy rather than plush, and instrumental lines consistently in excellent ...

The Brodsky Quartet started young and, with a couple of changes of leader during their lifetime, celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2012. Great musical ambassadors, they excel in a wide range of ...

"Definitive" is a dangerous word to use about any performance, especially when the work in question is the rich and repeatedly recorded Piano Quintet Op. 34 by Brahms. But this eloquent, expansive and ...

Brahms claimed to have written and destroyed 20 string quartets before he managed to complete any he wanted to keep. The two quartets of his Op. 51, which he wrote in 1873, ended a quarter century ...

Brahms famously ran into problems with a two-cello string quintet, which metamorphosed into a work for two pianos, and then into the great Piano Quintet we know today. Small wonder, then, that his two ...

ASPEN – This was a good week at the Aspen Music Festival for chamber music, and especially Brahms. On Tuesday night, a Brahms string quintet hit a high point in the hands of the Takacs Quartet. And ...

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Life & Arts news every morning. This useful pairing finds Brahms at his most autumnal, the entire quartet unfolding at moderate speeds ...

Aside from soloists, it’s safe to say most classical musicians almost always have their sheet music close at hand. But the young players in the Chiara String Quartet have challenged themselves to ...

The Takács Quartet also offer a rival recording of the C minor String Quartet (their Hyperion remake, which follows almost two decades after their first recording for Decca, 9/90 R). While both the ...