Brahms: Late Piano Works Album Review – Andrzejski leans into the melancholy of these intimate miniatures | classical music

forRamez’s late piano music is the pinnacle of 19th-century Romanticism, although its air of introspection and veiled sentimentality is a million miles away from the more turbulent works of his youth. Piotr Anderszewski sees in it a testimony of sorts, but it holds as many secrets as it reveals. By selecting dozens of these intimate miniatures to form an absorbing 48-minute programme, the Polish pianist opens a remarkable individual window into the composer’s solo artistic maturity.

It begins with the haunting B-minor Intermezzo from the Op 119 suite, where the tempo is measured and full of melancholy inflections. The phrasing is fluid with focused interpretations that show a distinct emotional core. The moderate pace continues throughout, as Anderszewski prefers to avoid leavening the mood just for the sake of contrast. The cumulative effect is that of deep remorse.

The Op 118 suite features a heart-wrenching narration of the A-major Intermezzo, the steady tempo heightening its sense of loss. The shadow of death looms over the Op 116 A-minor Intermezzo, and its pent-up grief is released in the subsequent G-minor Capriccio. Closing the concert is the tragic Op 118, No. 6, a reading shrouded in worldly sadness.

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