Brahms: Complete waltzes for four hands CD review – sparkle and swing, by Stephen Pritchard, The Observer

Stephen PritchardStephen Pritchard

Sunday 30 November 2014 00.05 GMT

The Observer

Brahms: Complete waltzes for four hands CD review – sparkle and swing
(4/5 stars)

Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov (piano)

(ICSM)

FIammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov

‘A dizzying experience’: FIammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov.

 

You can have too much of a good thing sometimes. Brahms’s two sets of Liebeslieder waltzes (love song waltzes) and his Op 39 waltzes were designed for domestic consumption, to be played and sung by talented families around the pianoforte… but not all in one evening. To hear all 49 in one go is a dizzying experience, a triple-time trauma. However, when taken in small doses it’s possible to really enjoy their melodic inventiveness, particularly when the playing is this good.

Husband and wife Ivo Varbanov and Fiammetta Tarli bring sparkle and swing to this repertoire on this, the first outing on their new label.