Credits:

Valery Afanassiev

Description:

He who maintains this path does not want to wax and wane. The long-awaited collection of Brahms’ works, recorded live during his 2013 tour of Japan by the prodigy Valery Afanasyev, is now available. Speaking of Afanasyev’s Brahms works, the famous “Late Works (Op. 117, 118, 119),” which won the 1992 Record Academy Award in the instrumental music category, and its sequel (Op. 116, etc.) (both on DENON) are well known, but now, 20 years later, we have a new recording of Afanasyev’s Brahms works. It is very interesting to see how Afanasyev’s interpretation has changed over the past 20 years. In fact, the impression is very different. The trademark slow tempi and unexpected expressions have disappeared, and the music has become more naturalistic; the master, now in his mid-60s, is sometimes blunt, and lets the work speak for itself without any special direction. The beauty of the piano sound w