A fine example of Brahms playing today from Stephen Hough and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This is an extended excerpt from the second movement of Brahm’s first piano concerto.
The slow buildup beginning with the restatement of the first theme by the orchestra at 3’36, leading up to those great glacial piano chords at 5’20 is especially well done here.
I have always been most partial to the Glenn Gould (live at Carnegie Hall with the NYPO) and Emil Gilels (studio) recordings of this work, but judging from the second movement alone in this video, Hough’s performance is right up there with those greats.
