Brahms – Piano Miniatures performed on a Johann Baptist Streicher fortepiano (1851)
Boyd McDonald
Doremi DDR71154/5
Veteran pianist, composer and musicologist Boyd McDonald, now professor emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo has, for the better part of his career, been exploring and performing on period pianos and their ancestors of the last 200 years. A former student of Nadia Boulanger and winner of the Leschetitzky Prize, McDonald is a recognized authority on Brahms’ own instrument made by Johann Streicher in 1851, on which instrument he has now released this set of Brahms miniatures.
While I find his performances are pleasant, the raison d’être of this set is to reveal to modern ears the instrument that Brahms himself used, as did Schumann and others. For historical reasons, this is an important documentation of a chapter in the development of the keyboard instruments. Compared to the modern piano, the sound is slim and percussive and so may not be to everyone’s taste. Heard are Four Ballades, Op.10; Two Rhapsodies, Op.79 and shorter works opp. 76, 116, 117, 118 and 119.
