Johannes Brahms by Franklin Larey

Johannes Brahms by Franklin Larey

Franklin Larey is recognised as one of South Africa’s leading concert pianists and acclaimed for his performances of works by Brahms, Mozart, Scriabin and Ravel.

An Associate Professor of the University of Cape Town, where he was appointed Director of the South African College of Music from 2002-07, he appears regularly as a recitalist, soloist, and accompanist, and has worked with conductors such as Isaiah Jackson, Gabriel Chmura, Bernard Gueller, Victor Yampolsky and Lesley Dunner.

Awards include first prize at the 1991 Young Chang International Piano Competition, third prize at the 1996 New Orleans International Piano Competition and the prestigious Fulbright Researcher Award from the University of Cincinnati. During his time in residence in the USA he also performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington DC, as an invited Fulbright artist.

He has received several honours for his work as a concert pianist, and for his contribution to music in South Africa. In South Africa he has served on the National Arts Council, a documentary of his career was aired on satellite television, and he was featured in South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council’s published series, Living Treasures. He currently serves as Director of the Summer Session of the Adamant Music School in Vermont (USA), and in 2010 he performed at Carnegie Hall (NY) at an anniversary concert of the school. His piano teachers include Bruce Gardiner Laura Searle, Frank Weinstock and Richard Fields.

The production of this CD, recorded in New York, provides a lasting record of Franklin’s contribution as a pianist and lifts out the significance of Franklin’s particular interpretation of Brahms. Extensive album notes by the artist, describes how Brahms’s piano music (especially in his late period) stands in sharp contrast to the virtuosic display found in the works of some of his contemporaries. Rather than exhibiting pianistic pyrotechnics, these pieces express profound personal emotion. Indeed, Brahms’s piano music displays a sensitive musical poetry, underpinned by daring harmonic effects and intricate melodic, motivic and rhythmic innovation.

Works featured on the album:

Four Ballades Op. 10
No. 1 in D minor – Andante
No. 2 in D major –  Andante
No. 3 in B minor – Intermezzo
No. 4 in B minor – Andante con moto

3 Intermezzi Op. 117
Andante moderato in E-flat major
Andante non troppo e con molto espressione in B-flat minor
Andante con moto in C-sharp minor

Klavierstücke Op. 118
Intermezzo in A minor
Intermezzo in A major
Ballade in G minor
Intermezzo in F minor
Romanze in F major
Intermezzo in E-flat minor

The album is available at selected music stores, including Upbeat Music in Cape Town,  as well as online at http://www.kalahari.net.

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