QUATUOR ÉBÈNE
BRAHMS String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2
MARINA VIOTTI, mezzo-soprano
ANNA VINNITSKAYA, piano
BRAHMS Gypsy Songs, Op. 10
MARINA VIOTTI, mezzo-soprano
PAUL ZIENTARA, viola
ANNA VINNITSKAYA, piano
BRAHMS Two Songs for Alto Voice, Viola and Piano, Op. 91
QUATUOR ÉBÈNE
ANNA VINNITSKAYA, piano
BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Opus 34, one of Brahms’s favorite works, underwent a long maturation process: initially conceived as a string quintet and later destroyed, then reworked as a sonata for two pianos, it finally reached its definitive form as a quintet for piano and strings. The Ébène Quartet—joined here by Anna Vinnitskaya, who also knows how to color Brahms with her infinitely nuanced palette—has produced a benchmark recording of the piece. Before that, the pianist lends her resonant keyboard to the ardent voice of Swiss mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti for the Gypsy Songs, in their voice-and-piano version, as well as two songs with obbligato viola. Opening the program is the Second String Quartet, a quintessentially Viennese genre that Brahms embraced three times after settling in the Austrian capital.
