Customer Reviews

Johannes Brahms: Sextet No. 1 / Piano Trio No. 1

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I've owned three copies of this recording of the first Brahms string sextet, the first two on LPs that I wore out from playing so often. When I saw, by chance, that it had been reissued, along with the first Brahms piano trio, on CD, my heart skipped a beat. Let me explain:

The Op. 18 Sextet was my first Brahms chamber music; I bought it in the 1950s when I was a teenager just beginning to collect LPs. A fellow student recommended this recording and when I got it I immediately fell in love--with both the piece and the performance. It didn't take me long to wear it out. I bought a second copy in the early 1960s. I probably was last able to listen to it in the late 1970s; by then playing it sounded like a a family of mice were sandpapering the inside of my speakers.

I've since owned performances of the Sextets by at least four groups--Les Musiciens; a group of Italian string players led by violinist Giuliano Carmignola; The Raphael Ensemble; and a group of Boston Symphony players (my favorite besides this one). But I was 'imprinted' on this performance. Hearing it again, I understand why. For one thing, this Prades Festival group plays it more slowly and with greater warmth; still the Scherzo and the Rondo manage to sound, as Nicolas Slonimsky once said, euphoniously euphorious. The high point, though, as always, is that dazzling set of variations on one of Brahms's most gorgeous tunes, the second movement Andante. As I was listening to it again after all these years, when they got to the cello solo variation, about two minutes from the end of the movement, I found I was suddenly in tears: Casals' ability to sing that tune in a whisper still has that effect on me. Indeed, I defy anyone to hear that passage and remained unmoved.

Let's talk about the musicians participating in the Sextet. They are names to conjure with: Isaac Stern (then only 30), Alexander Schneider (the much-loved 'Sascha,' of the Budapest Quartet and leading light of the Marlboro Festival), Milton Katims (Toscanini's favorite violist, later a wonderful conductor), Milton Thomas (Stokowski's principal violist), Madeline Foley (ah, what an unsung heroine of the cello; she, too, was a fixture at Marlboro, but her career was mostly in teaching), and finally Pau Casals, about whose playing nothing can be added. But as a musical mover and shaker, Casals is of sainted memory. It's not often recalled that early in the 20th-century Brahms wasn't highly regarded outside the German-speaking countries. Casals was one who INSISTED on playing Brahms (another such was Arthur Rubinstein), and indeed he would even sit in the orchestra and play the cello solo in third movement the Second Piano Concerto, something a world-famous soloist wouldn't ordinarily do.

About the Piano Trio, Op. 8: the musicians here are also fabled. Get this: Dame Myra Hess, piano; Isaac Stern, violin; Pau Casals, cello. Oh my. Oh my. Such music-making. And such music. Again, the opening theme of the Trio is one of Brahms most memorable. These three musicians embrace the music (and, figuratively, each other) to make the performance gemütlich, passionate, yearningly romantic.

Both these pieces were recorded at the 1952 Prades Festival, also of fabled memory. What I wouldn't have given to have been there.

So, for those who want truly magnificent historic performances ven though in old sound, this may be the one for you. And thank goodness we can't wear out CDs!

In case, you didn't catch on, I heartily recommend this one.

Scott Morrison

I have never heard a performance of this sextet that projects the warmth, humanity and glowing intensity of this one, now in clean mono sound. Get this (and in addition, Casals and company's likewise wonderful account of the great Schubert string quintet, also on Sony) and be deeply moved by their truly special way of music making.

I have collected several CD performances of the Brahms Sextet #1 and this one is the most passionate, especially in the second movement when Pablo Casals's warm and deep cello leads everyone on. Working very well together the musicians reveal many of the sublime Germanic feelings in the piece not heard elsewhere.
The group picks up the lyrical notes and runs with them right to the finish.
Truly a masterpiece and my favorite version of those available right now.

So far as appreciation goes, I have nothing to add to Scott Morrison's glowing recommendation. Pablo Casals was a musical titan of a bygone type. Just as Toscanini protested Mussolini's regime by refusing to play in Italy while he ruled, Casals remained exiled from Spain during the Franco era -- his Prades Festival was just outside the country and served as an artistic protest to Fascism.

These great performances speak for themselves. They are of an intensity that is also long gone, and every participant in the Sextet is inspired by Casals, his fervency and molten tone. I only wish that the sound wasn't so abrasive. Even for 1952 this recording sounds primitive. But one gets used to it, and perhaps Sony will see fit to return to the master tapes one day for a thorough remastering.

Other reviewers to this page have stated almost everything I also feel about this recording except that I believe it to be in the highest cadre of musical experience of the 20th century immortalized on disc. The warmth of the young Brahms jumps from the recording.