JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1. Ballads op.10 Paul Lewis, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding

A renewal of forms.
Too innovative for its time, Brahms’s Piano Concerto no.1, premiered in Hanover in 1859, needed a few years to become established in the repertory. It is a work that redefines the norms of the genre. The traditional confrontation between virtuoso soloist and orchestra is bypassed in favour of a balanced treatment and a more ‘symphonic’ approach. The Ballades op.10 too derive from the impetus towards a renewal of forms characteristic of the young Brahms’s output.