The veteran pianist
Rudolf Buchbinder
is known best for
Haydn
and
Mozart
, but he has the kind of record that has earned him the right to do pretty much what he wants in later life. Here, he plays transcriptions of
Brahms
songs by
Max Reger
, items that most listeners will not have heard. Of course, on the one hand, transcriptions were part and parcel of the 19th century scene (although perhaps less so in the song genre); on the other, 28 of these things, deprived of the texts, may sound like a lot, but
Buchbinder
's program is interesting on the whole. He takes his
songs chronologically, and this yields various insights. There are simple pieces from throughout
' lied output, but most of these songs are not simple, and without the contrast provided by the voice, the listener's attention is directed toward the place of the melody line in a web of polyphony. Consider a song as straightforward as the
Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4
, the so-called "
Brahms Lullaby
." There turns out to be plenty going on below, and often above, the melody, holding the listener's interest in a whole new way. The chronological organization gives the listener a unique window into the growing density of
' late style. There is probably no way to know whether
Schoenberg
and the other members of the Second Viennese School, great admirers of
, heard the masterful treatment of register in these transcriptions, but they certainly might have. A fine offbeat find for
lovers, and indeed those of
Reger
. ~ James Manheim