Notos Quartett - Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1, Symphony No. 3 - The Schönberg Effect (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

In its new Brahms album, the Notos Quartet crosses the boundary between chamber music and the symphony. Alongside the First Piano Quartet, Op. 25, the four musicians have also recorded an arrangement of Brahms’s Third Symphony, Op. 90, specifically prepared for them by Andreas N. Tarkmann. To a certain extent, Arnold Schoenberg’s arrangement of Brahms’s Op. 25 for full orchestra inspired this idea. However, the Notos Quartet has adopted a diametrically opposite approach, determined instead to reveal characteristics of chamber music within Brahms’s Third Symphony. According to the musicians, “Schoenberg found such compositional riches in Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25 that he arranged the work for a large symphony orchestra, justifying his approach with the words: ‘1. I like this piece. 2. It is seldom played. 3. It is always very badly played, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted to hear everything at once, and this I have achieved.’ Conversely, we would like to demonstrate the extent to which Brahms’s Third Symphony is actually grounded in his understanding of chamber music. To this end, we have made the piece our own through this version for piano quartet, in which previously unheard structures are suddenly revealed. These novel structures compel us to hear the piece in an entirely new and impassioned way, namely, as a symbiosis between a bed of symphonic sound and chamber-like clarity, which together afford proof of Brahms’s tremendous mastery as a composer.”

Tracklist:
1. Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25: I. Allegro (13:27)
2. Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25: II. Intermezzo. Allegro man non troppo (07:37)
3. Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25: III. Andante con moto (10:00)
4. Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25: IV. Rondo alla Zingarese. Presto (08:35)
5. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (Arr. for Piano Quartet by Andreas N. Tarkmann): I. Allegro con brio (11:54)
6. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (Arr. for Piano Quartet by Andreas N. Tarkmann): II. Andante (07:31)
7. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (Arr. for Piano Quartet by Andreas N. Tarkmann): III. Poco allegretto (05:14)
8. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (Arr. for Piano Quartet by Andreas N. Tarkmann): IV. Allegro (08:27)


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