World Premiere Recording Of 'New' Brahms Concerto Features The Silver-Garburg Piano Duo and Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Brahms's love of piano music for four hands is well-known, and can be seen in the rich array of works he wrote in that genre. Now, however, admired composer and arranger Richard Dünser has created a fascinating 'new Brahms piano concerto' for piano four hands and orchestra, written for the Silver-Garburg Piano Duo. Silver-Garburg have already started performing it frequently around the world, and have made this world premiere recording for Berlin Classics, for release on 9th October (26th October in the UK).

The recording features the Vienna Symphony Orchestra - an ensemble steeped in the Brahmsian tradition - conducted by Florian Krumpöck, and took place at the Vienna Konzerthaus, in the heart of the city that Brahms made his home. The new work is drawn from the Piano Quartet Op. 25, the idea for which came from the Silver-Garburg Piano Duo - Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg. And the album also includes Brahms's Haydn Variations, among the most important Romantic works for two pianos, demonstrating his love for the two-piano format.

The notion of looking to the Piano Quartet Op. 25 is not without precedent. Brahms himself composed a four-handed version, without orchestra (and Arnold Schoenberg orchestrated it without piano). So this new concerto was an attempt to turn the Piano Quartet into an authentically Brahmsian four-handed concerto.

This recording follows the Silver-Garburg Piano Duo's much-admired previous album for Berlin Classics, "Illumination", nominated for a 2020 Opus Klassik Award. Berlin-based, Silver-Garburg remain among the most popular of piano duos in Europe. The coming months (COVID-allowing) will see them perform the new Brahms concerto at the Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg and Brussels Palais Des Beaux-Arts - both with the Belgian National Orchestra; in Jerusalem with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra; at Prague's Smetana Hall and in Hamburg both with the Prague Symphony Orchestra; and on a planned major US tour. Other upcoming schedule highlights for Silver-Garburg include appearances with orchestras including the Lucerne Symphony (in Lucerne and at the Vienna Musikverein), the Brandenburg Staatorchester, Berlin Symphony and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra; a European tour with the Orchestra Of The Americas, and recitals and chamber music at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Moscow's Zaryadye Concert Hall.