CD Review | Brahms in Solitude (Self-published, 2023)

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Brahms in Solitude
Jarred Dunn, piano
Self-published, 2023

This album’s 11 pieces create a well-planned trajectory through Brahms’s poetic music, and Jarred Dunn demonstrates a natural ability in performing this music.

The album opens with three pieces from Klavierstücke Op. 118, perhaps the most well-known opus of Brahms’s late piano music. Dunn gives us a taste of Brahms’s various meditative styles: first, the dramatic and emotional Intermezzo in A minor; then, the lyrical Intermezzo in A major (the Brahms Intermezzo), beautifully played with interior lines of counterpoint; and ending with the foreboding, intense, chromatically colourful Intermezzo in E-flat minor.

Two lesser known works from Klavierstücke Op. 76 were written while Brahms studied Chopin’s music, and have an air of solemn nostalgia. Dunn handles the repetitive forms of these with expertise, emphasizing their inner voices and hidden melodies.

With frequent shifts of rhythm, harmony, and melody, the two E major Intermezzi from Fantasien Op. 116 are often surprising. Here, Dunn creates the image of a muted spotlight blinking on and off, shifting its focus from one motive to another. His deft voicing and clarity speak to his understanding of the works of Brahms’s idol, J.S. Bach.

Brahms called the three Intermezzi Op. 117 “lullabies of [his]sorrows.” Though quietly lamenting, each contains moments of agitation. Dunn’s interpretations are timeless and still, but never halt the music’s natural momentum. His soft sound is at once full-bodied and resonant, and unthinkably quiet.

The final piece, the first Intermezzo from Klavierstücke Op. 119, was no doubt carefully chosen to leave listeners in a state of reflection. Dunn’s sensitive playing of the Adagio calls to mind Clara Schumann’s description of it as Brahms’s “grey pearl.” His precision, sense of musical direction, and knowledge of the piano’s every colour are on display here.

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)