Barry Douglas has reached the third volume of his survey of Brahms’s piano works, continuing his mix-and-match policy of bringing together pieces from all periods of the composer’s output, often as incomplete works. The latest collection includes a sequence of late intermezzos – the first and third from the four pieces of Op 119, followed by the fifth of Op 116 – but the rest of the disc does consist of three complete works as Brahms published them: the Sonata in F sharp minor Op 2, the 16 Waltzes of Op 39 and the set of D minor Variations, one of the greatest of all Brahms’ early inspirations, which is better known as the second movement of the Op 18 String Sextet. The performances are generally first-rate, with a real Brahmsian mix of toughness and slightly gruff charm about them; Douglas is at his best in the early Sonata, but his account of the jewel-like intermezzos – Clara Schumann described the first of Op 119 as a “grey pearl” – are most subtlely coloured too.
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