Igor Levit. Leonkoro Quartet

As is well known, Brahms took a long time to write some of his most beautiful works. He had destroyed more than 20 string quartets, he claimed to a friend; it was not until 1873, by then 40 years old, that he presented the double delivery of his Opus 51. Already with the Beethovenian fateful key of C minor, the first quartet reveals which tradition it intends to follow. No less complicated is the genesis of the Piano Quintet, which Brahms initially intended for a pure string ensemble, then arranged as a sonata for two pianos – before he reworked the score again on the advice of Clara Schumann. The American Caroline Shaw, whose refined, historicizing "Entr'acte" is a contemporary statement by the multi-award-winning Leonkoro Quartet, is much easier to produce.
Igor Levit
Piano
Leonkoro Quartet
Jonathan black
Violin
Amelie Wallner
Violin
Mayu Konoe
Viola
Luke Black
Violoncello
Caroline Shaw
Entr'acte (2011)
Johannes Brahms
String Quartet in C minor op. 51/1
Piano Quintet in F minor op. 34

His first quartet was a "forceps birth", as Johannes Brahms felt. The perfectionist had burned all his previous designs in the fireplace. Amelie Wallner, 2nd violinist in the Leonkoro Quartet, and host Thilo Braun wander between his "composed crisis of meaning" and moments of radiant light.
Spotify