Friday 11 May 2012

Brahms - 7 Fantasies Op116 [Ax] 

I took the bus to another Town today, and i played this on the journey, this made the trip so wonderful, and Ax's Brahms is a real revelation, full of lovely ideas, the Op116 pieces are the late Brahms i know the least, so it was great to delve deeper in them today, i especially played a couple of them twice, it's good to hear them once, to get an overall feel for the piece, then right after press replay, and really listen to it a second time, this was a great joy, i'm not sure if it's Ax or it's Brahms, or both, but there's a certain inspiredness in listening to this disc today.

Emanuel Ax is Polish, born in 1949, he made this recording in 1995, i just really like the front cover [photo by Josephine DiDonato], lovely blues, the red bow tie suits him, and the light on his face is great.

For me it was the two Intermezzi 2 & 4 that i really liked [the two i played twice], and i'd like to give my thoughts on both of these pieces,
Intermezzo Op116/2
Intermezzo Op116/4