The Muse by Nino Gvetadze

Johannes Brahms, Clara Wieck Schumann

Nino Gvetadze

The Muse

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917297027
Catnr: CC 72970
Release date: 03 November 2023
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917297027

Catalogue number
CC 72970

Release date
03 November 2023

"Gvetadze imposes a balanced, albeit marcato, combination of gravitas and textural clarity, without any sacrifice of forward propulsion. The 1879 Rhapsody in B Minor receives an equally “studied,” if not precious, realization, the approach sensitive to the Brahms penchant for structural, ternary formality in the midst of passions."

Fanfare Magazine, 01-5-2024

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Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

The year 1860 represented a turning-point in Brahms’s life: he issued a ‘Manifesto’ in which he distanced himself from the Romanticism of the ‘New German School’ epitomised by Liszt and their association with Wagner’s music-dramas. This aesthetic change of heart placed an emphasis on hard work and craftsmanship rather than the more Romantic conception of inspiration, with Brahms taking a particular pride in being both German and a self-made man. This ethos is reflected in the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24. Brahms’s two Rhapsodies, Op. 79 were composed in 1879 and were dedicated to his friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg. The title may lull the listener into a false sense of whimsy, when in reality these pieces are founded on clear structural designs. Three Intermezzos Op. 117: Brahms wrote of these three Intermezzos to his friend Rudolf von der Leyen, describing them as ‘Wiegenlieder meiner Schmerzen’: ‘lullabies of my sorrow’. Each has the character of a soliloquy or introspective personal reflection.

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Nino Gvetadze about this album: "Throughout his life, Brahms was influenced by those he admired: the musicians he idolized, and the women with whom he formed powerful bonds. Clara Schumann represented both, and Nino Gvetadze explores their fascinating dynamic in The Muse. Brahms’s Two Rhapsodies Op. 79 were dedicated to Elisabet von Herzogenberg, whose loss he mourned in the Intermezzos Op. 117; and he was inspired by Handel to write a phenomenal set of Variations dedicated to Clara Schumann – whose Op. 21 Romances date from a time that neither she nor Brahms would ever forget."

De alom gewaardeerde pianiste Nino Gvetadze verkende door de jaren heen de muzikale taal van componist Johannes Brahms. Nu, met haar nieuwe album ‘The Muse’, heeft ze het gevoel dat ze als verhalenverteller haar persoonlijke stem kan toevoegen aan zijn muziek. Ze koos hiervoor drie van Brahms’ pianowerken uit drie verschillende fases van zijn leven. Een prachtige opname met als romantisch toetje een werk van Clara Schumann, met wie Brahms een sterke band had.

Het jaar 1860 betekende een keerpunt in het leven van Brahms: hij bracht een ‘Manifest’ uit waarin hij afstand nam van de romantiek van de ‘Nieuwe Duitse School’, belichaamd door Franz Liszt en Wagners muziekdrama's. Deze esthetische verandering zorgde ervoor dat Brahms de nadruk legde op hard werken en vakmanschap, in plaats van op de meer romantische opvatting van inspiratie. Brahms was er bijzonder trots op dat hij als rechtgeaarde Duitser een selfmade man kon zijn. Dit ethos is te horen in zijn ‘Variaties en Fuga op een Thema van Händel’, Op. 24, die hij opdroeg aan Clara Schumann ter gelegenheid van haar 42e verjaardag. In december 1861 gaf zij in Hamburg de première van dit meesterwerk, een van Brahms’ mooiste pianowerken waarvoor hij veel lof kreeg vanwege zijn perfecte behandeling van de muzikale architectuur en pianistische textuur. Een pianowerk waarvan de mogelijkheden zelfs na 25 variaties en een monumentale fuga nog niet zijn uitgeput.

Gedurende zijn hele leven werd Brahms geïnspireerd door zijn muzen. Hij bewonderde Clara Schumann, maar werd ook beïnvloed door haar geliefde echtgenoot Robert. Clara op haar beurt zorgde ervoor dat een van haar studenten, Florence May, de muziek van Brahms onder de aandacht bracht van het Engelse publiek. May gaf de Engelse première van de Händel Variaties in november 1873 in Crystal Palace. Zijn ‘Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79’, gecomponeerd in 1879 droeg Brahms op aan pianiste Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, zijn andere muze, die overleed in het jaar dat hij de drie ‘Intermezzi, Op. 117’ componeerde.

Nino Gvetadze is de oprichter en artistiek leider van het Naarden International Piano Festival met als doel ondersteuning te bieden aan talentvolle master studenten. Tijdens het festival treden deze jonge pianisten niet alleen op, maar ontmoeten ze ook ervaren meesterpianisten. Vanaf 2021 is Gvetadze eveneens artistiek directeur van het Delft Chamber Music Festival waar zij talenten scout, solisten of ensembles, die een prijs hebben gewonnen of een beurs hebben ontvangen voor een master.

Das Jahr 1860 stellte einen Wendepunkt in Brahms' Leben dar: Er veröffentlichte ein "Manifest", in dem er sich von der Romantik der "Neuen Deutschen Schule", die von Liszt verkörpert wurde, und deren Verbindung mit Wagners Musikdramen distanzierte. Dieser ästhetische Sinneswandel betonte harte Arbeit und handwerkliches Können anstelle der eher romantischen Auffassung von Inspiration, wobei Brahms besonders stolz darauf war, sowohl Deutscher als auch Selfmademan zu sein. Dieses Ethos spiegelt sich in den Variationen und Fuge über ein Thema von Händel wider,
op. 24. Brahms' zwei Rhapsodien op. 79 entstanden 1879 und waren seiner Freundin Elisabet von Herzogenberg gewidmet. Der Titel mag den Hörer in ein falsches Gefühl von Phantasie versetzen, während diese Stücke in Wirklichkeit auf klaren strukturellen Entwürfen beruhen. Drei Intermezzi op. 117: Brahms schrieb diese drei Intermezzi an seinen Freund Rudolf von der Leyen und bezeichnete sie als "Wiegenlieder meiner Schmerzen". Jedes hat den Charakter eines Selbstgesprächs oder einer introspektiven persönlichen Reflexion.

Artist(s)

Nino Gvetadze (piano)

Born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze leads an international career as a soloist and a chamber musician. Her performances have been praised by many critics throughout the Europe and Asia. Nino received various awards, the most important were the Second Prize, Press Prize and Audience Award at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition 2008. She became the winner of prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2010. Since 2019 Nino Gvetadze is the Artistic Leader of Naarden International Piano Festival. Nino Gvetadze has performed with many outstanding conductors such as Michel Plasson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michel Tabachnik, John Axelrod and Jaap van Zweden and with orchestras such as the Rotterdam, Residentie-The Hague, Brussels, Espoo-Helsinki, Warsaw, Seoul and Netherlands Philharmonic, Bergische and the...

Nino Gvetadze has performed with many outstanding conductors such as Michel Plasson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michel Tabachnik, John Axelrod and Jaap van Zweden and with orchestras such as the Rotterdam, Residentie-The Hague, Brussels, Espoo-Helsinki, Warsaw, Seoul and Netherlands Philharmonic, Bergische and the Rheinische Philharmonie, Münchner Symphoniker, amongst others. She toured with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Camerata RCO and Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Recent highlights are the performance of Ulvi Cemal Erkin’s piano concerto in Istanbul and the Variations on a nursery tune of Dohnány with the Liege Royal Philharmonic and chief conductor Gergely Madaras.

In recital Nino has performed all over the world, among other in Hannover (PRO MUSICA Preisträger amKlavier-Zyklus), Bayreuth, Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater Munich, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Spoleto Festival, Lucerne Piano Festival, Bunka-kaikan Hall Tokyo, Kuhrhaus Wiesbaden, the Festival Piano aux Jacobins (Toulouse), Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland). In the Netherlands Nino is a regular guest at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven and Edesche Concertzaal. Since 2008 Nino plays in the "Arosa Trio" with her colleagues Frederieke Saeijs and Maja Bogdanovic.

Nino Gvetadze is a Challenge Classics artist. On her 2nd album “Visions” she presents piano pieces of the English composer Cyril Scott. Music journal “Pianist” wrote about her first CD “Ghosts” with the 24 Préludes of Chopin: ‘Gvetadze makes the listener - partly thanks to the wonderful recording - companion of the most intimate thoughts’. Repertoire that has been released on other labels: piano works by Mussorgsky (Brilliant Classics), Rachmaninoff Preludes op 23 and op 32 (Etcetera), “Debussy” with the Préludes book I, Estampes and Claire de Lune (Orchid) and “Widmung” with Liszt piano works (Orchid). The Debussy CD was editor’s choice of both International Record Review (April 2014).

In Tbilisi Nino studied with Veronika Tumanishvili, Nodar Gabunia and Nana Khubutia. After her graduation Nino moved to the Netherlands to study with Paul Komen and Jan Wijn. Nino plays on a Steinway Grand Piano, kindly lent to her by the Dutch National Music Instrument Foundation.

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Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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Clara Wieck Schumann

Clara Wieck was a pupil of her father Friedrich in Frankfurt and performed for the first time in public when she was ten years old, with success. After a lot of squabbles, she married Robert Schumann in 1840, and she was a close friend of Brahms, especially after Schumann's death in 1856. She worked as a piano teacher, first in Berlin and later in Frankfurt, from 1878-1892. As a pianist of European stature she made since 1832 concert tours to Russia, the Netherlands and England. She mainly excelled in the work of Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin, and later on Brahms. As a composer, she wrote a piano concerto, chamber music, a piano sonata, short piano pieces, songs and cadences for piano concertos...

Clara Wieck was a pupil of her father Friedrich in Frankfurt and performed for the first time in public when she was ten years old, with success. After a lot of squabbles, she married Robert Schumann in 1840, and she was a close friend of Brahms, especially after Schumann's death in 1856. She worked as a piano teacher, first in Berlin and later in Frankfurt, from 1878-1892.
As a pianist of European stature she made since 1832 concert tours to Russia, the Netherlands and England. She mainly excelled in the work of Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin, and later on Brahms.
As a composer, she wrote a piano concerto, chamber music, a piano sonata, short piano pieces, songs and cadences for piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven.
(Source: Musicalifeiten.nl)

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Press

Gvetadze imposes a balanced, albeit marcato, combination of gravitas and textural clarity, without any sacrifice of forward propulsion. The 1879 Rhapsody in B Minor receives an equally “studied,” if not precious, realization, the approach sensitive to the Brahms penchant for structural, ternary formality in the midst of passions.
Fanfare Magazine, 01-5-2024

This is superb pianism of East European vintage, firm and well balanced. It envelops you and carries you along.
American Record Guide, 01-3-2024

Her reading of the Rhapsodies op. 79 is passionate, in line with that of the famous three Interludes op. 117.
Classic Voice, 01-3-2024

Nino Gvetadze interprets Brahms compositions inspired by two of his muses. New performance of album CHALLENGE CLASSICS CC-72970 Johannes Brahms / THE MUSE / Nino Gvetadze, pianoforte
Rai Radio 3, 22-2-2024

This release provides a fulfilling chronological path through some of the heights of his solo instrumental compositions. (...) The recording throughout presents a very clear piano sound, with excellent dynamics, and without distracting sounds. (...) Overall, if you are either new to Brahms' piano music, or like listening to a varied single composer program, then this release can be recommended with confidence.
Classical Music Sentinel, 01-2-2024

Gvetadze again has a clear and precise tone here, but never finicky, because she has an excellent feeling for the romantic atmosphere.
Luister, 01-1-2024

Gvetadze always adds a layer of emotion to her playing and admirably draws us deeper into Brahms's inner world. And finally, she cradles him in her arms.
NRC, 12-12-2023

What Gvetadze presents is Brahms of terrific character and life certainly, but imbued with an almost Mendelssohnian lightness, clarity and delicacy ... Gvetadze avoids any sense of heaviness with playing of Mozartian transparency and pellucid tone. Each variation is wonderfully characterised and there is a real sense of forward propulsion leading to the final fugue. The whole performance is superb and her conception sounds fresh as a daisy. The same is true of the Op 79 Rhapsodies. Here again Gvetadze's precision and clarity are a revelation, making this familiar music sound newly minted.
International Piano Magazine, 12-12-2023

"Brahms is a composer who needs time to mature. Once you've made a recording, you can't change it. That's why I waited for years, and I needed those years to really master Brahms. After the last CD of Schumann's works I had the feeling that it was finally time for Brahms. It is quite complex music with enormous depth and wisdom, which is expressed in long melody lines, enormous nobility and impressive intimacy and emotionality." - Nino Gvetadze
Luister, 01-12-2023

Everything has been thought from a convincing concept that does justice to this music. Narrative interpretation is what Gvetadze is mainly about, aided by her flawless technique and the warm-toned, sonorous and transparent recording of Guido Tichelman.
Opus Klassiek, 01-12-2023

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Nino Gvetadze

The Muse

About the album

Artist(s)

Nino Gvetadze (piano)

Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Clara Wieck Schumann

Press

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