Igor Levit. Leonkoro Quartet
Brahms: major works among themselves

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, with whose sophisticatedly historicized "Entr'acte" the multi-award-winning Leonkoro Quartet makes its contemporary statement, produces an incomparably lighter work.


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 C minor op. 51/1
Piano Quintet F minor op. 34