Van Cliburn, My Favorite Brahms. Middlebrow America’s favorite pianist got a bad rap from the critics, and on occasion he deserved it–but not this time. Cliburn’s 1973 collection of the solo-piano miniatures of Brahms is one of the outstanding piano recordings of the postwar era, a masterpiece of selection, execution, and interpretation. Nobody, not even Wilhelm Kempff, has played these broodingly autumnal cameos more sensitively or comprehendingly. The CD version contains five bonus tracks, all comparable in quality to the ones on the original LP (TT).
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
