16 July 2012

Music Monday: Brahms Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2

I posted this piece on my now-defunct blog, di-Verse-ifying, but with Emmanuel Ax playing. I've since grown fonder of Artur Rubinstein's interpretation -- passionate rather than tender, overt rather than introspective in its romanticism. Rubinstein's voicing of inner lines is subtle and masterful, as is his direction of the phrase. There's absolutely nothing sentimental, but something impetuous and youthful about this reading that was lacking for me in Ax's.

If the tempo seems a bit fast, the pitch is also a bit high -- more towards B-flat rather than A, both a result of the speed of the recording. I suspect that, in reality, Rubinstein took it a notch or two slower than we hear in this video. Still, the youthful impetuosity would be there -- and so much heart!



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