All the way back to Brahms

Following the new edition of the first piano concerto in D minor op. 15 by Johannes Brahms, Paul Badura-Skoda has now also taken on the more extensive and indeed much more demanding second concerto, also for Edition Peters.

"The aim of the new edition is not only to reproduce the composer's text as accurately as possible, but also to offer indications of the 'correct' interpretation, insofar as this is possible at all ... Furthermore, I see myself as probably the last musician who can still look back on a direct oral tradition. This tradition extends from Brahms via Eugen d'Albert, Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Backhaus to myself," Badura-Skoda writes in the foreword, quite rightly and not without vanity. This line of ancestors could easily be continued ...

An important witness to Brahms' lineage was of course Arthur Rubinstein, who recorded the Second Piano Concerto for the first time in 1929 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Albert Coates. Rubinstein was not happy about this collaboration, but it is still worth listening to this recording: The tempi seem absurdly fast to today's ears, especially in the 1st and 3rd movements - and yet they correspond pretty closely to the composer's metronome markings!

Back to the new edition by Edition Peters: in comparison to the old edition, which was supervised by Emil von Sauer, it is not only the accuracy of the text, the references and the editor's fingerings, which reveal the experienced pianist, especially in tricky passages, that are to be praised. The music is also very clearly laid out and easy to read. And last but not least: the thick booklet (there are more than 100 pages) is very cleverly bound. You can easily turn the pages and the spine still remains stable. Quite banal and yet very important!

Johannes Brahms, Concerto No. 2 in B flat major op. 83 for piano and orchestra, edition for two pianos, edited by Paul Badura-Skoda, EP 11407, Fr.25.95, Edition Peters, Leipzig et al. 2015