Brahms Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2

The Berlin Music Festival gets off yet again to “a brilliant start” (Tagesspiegel).: Daniel Barenboim plays both of the Brahms piano concertos at the Philharmonie with Gustavo Dudamel and the Staatskapelle accompanying him. Dudamel and Barenboim had already appeared on stage together at La Scala in Milan to celebrate Daniel Barenboim’s 70th birthday. That winning collaboration now continues in Berlin with a programme that is particularly demanding for the pianist: “Barenboim launches with near-superhuman enthusiasm into Brahms’s two piano concertos (…), masterpieces of monumental dimensions. (…)” is how the Berliner Morgenpost describes it, while the Tagesspiegel newspaper is impressed by the pianist’s accomplishment in mastering the works’ complexity: “This artist is a phenomenon: he appears to enjoy limitless energy, concentration and love of music-making. (…) In the D minor concerto Barenboim focuses entirely on the intimate moments, eschewing a display of strength which this piece sometimes

seems to encourage.”