Johannes Brahms, Glenn Gould – Ballades, Op.10, Rhapsodies, Op.79 (VG+/VG+) – LP, NL 1983

Ballades, Op.10, Rhapsodies, Op.79 is an LP by Glenn Gould, Johannes Brahms from 1983 released on the CBS Masterworks label.

About this album

Glenn Gould’s Brahms recital gives the Ballades Op.10 and Rhapsodies Op.79 uncommon clarity, tension and structural detail. Rather than treating these pieces as salon miniatures, Gould brings out their dramatic contrasts, sharply etched phrasing and restless inner voices, revealing Brahms’s early and middle-period piano writing as lean, ambitious and deeply individual. Brahms wrote the Ballades in 1854 and the Rhapsodies in 1879, two sets separated by a quarter-century yet linked by the composer’s blend of classical discipline and Romantic intensity. Gould’s distinctive approach makes the set a compelling study in both Brahms’s craft and the interpretive force of one of the 20th century’s most original pianists.