Villians

This blistering and thunderous performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto in D minor may well be the most exciting since the Berlin Philharmonic's recording with Eugen Jochum and Emil Gilels back in the early 1970s. Maurizio Pollini shows in the vigorous and exuberant third movement why he is regarded as one of the most dynamic pianists of our time.
The appeal of this towering work resides in its grandiose and majestic themes. Rich with thick contrapuntal textures and a piano part worthy of Liszt, this work has often been referred to as a symphony with piano. The opening movement is a stunner: a grandiose and stirring string section backed by a thunderous timpani. The movement soon gives way to a somber piano solo before developing into that is only later worked into the canvas of the movement's expansive development. The second movement owes its stately and serene tone to the composer's growing attachment to Robert Schumann's wife--Brahms wrote in a letter to her that the second movement was a "delicate portrait" of her. In the finale Brahms deftly works in a reference to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony before closing the work in a blaze of symphonic glory.