Krystian Zimerman & Friends

Krystian Zimerman and Brahms – an ideal artistic combination from the pianist’s earliest days. One of Zimerman’s very first CDs in the early 1980s was a recording of Brahms’ Sonatas and Ballades, followed soon afterwards by the two piano concertos. Now Zimerman can be heard in the teamwork setting of chamber music in two of Brahms’ three piano quartets. These magnificent, demanding works caused Brahms a long struggle for artistic perfection and he repeatedly returned to refine them. There were few models in this genre to which Brahms could have referred. Nonetheless, he succeeded alone in creating three masterpieces in the field. They would appear to have a partly autobiographical background, as Brahms said to his publisher of the third piano quartet: “And you may put a picture on the title page: a head – with a pistol to it. Now you get an idea of the music. I will send you photograph of myself for the purpose! A blue tailcoat, yellow trousers and over-the-knee boots …” Is the image of Brahms in a “Werther” costume just a facetious association with Goethe’s youthful suicide victim? One way or another, there can be no doubt about the deep seriousness of this music.