Dating from 1974/75, Peter Rösel’s Brahms recordings first appeared on the former East German Eterna label and were released on CD a few decades later in the West via Berlin Classics. Hopefully this space-saving reissue will help attract many listeners to what I consider the most consistently satisfying Brahms cycle on disc from a single pianist (the contents encompass all the original solo piano compositions with opus numbers, but no transcriptions or arrangements). Highlights include a Third sonata played with extraordinary sweep, judicious poetry, and cohesion, a rhythmically vivacious and refreshingly light-fingered First sonata, a Paganini Variations that bristles with character and impressive technical finish, and virile Op. 79 Rhapsodies. In the small pieces making up Op. 76 and Op. 116-119, Rösel allows the music’s polyphonic rigor to be heard without sacrificing one iota of lyrical tenderness (Op. 118 No. 2 and Op. 119 No. 1, for instance).
Only a few selections fall below Rösel’s general level of excellence. I would have expected the Handel Variations to gain momentum with more dramatic fervor and dynamic contrast than Rösel provides, despite his seamless tempo relationships. And his brisk accounts of the first and fourth Op. 10 Ballades will strike many listeners as too unorthodox and unyielding. These are minor quibbles, of course, and it goes without saying that Rösel’s formidable technique transcends Brahms’ often unwieldy keyboard writing. The sound is fine if a bit airless and dynamically constricted by today’s standards. In sum, this is a first-class Brahms cycle from one of the most underrated pianists in the business.
