Into a league with the very finest

Born in 1970, the American pianist Nicholas Angelich was educated in France, where he studied under both Michel Beroff and Aldo Ciccolini. His two previous releases on Virgin Classics consist of chamber works by Brahms: critically-acclaimed sets of the three Violin sonatas with French violinist Renaud Capuçon, and the Piano trios, in which the two musicians are joined by Renaud’s cellist brother, Gautier Capuçon. The present disc is Angelich’s first solo Brahms recital, and the results are no less rewarding. Performing works from the three distinctive creative periods of the composer’s life, Angelich is given ample opportunity to display not only his formidable technical resources, but also his broad tonal palette and striking sense of drama, poetry, and structure. The performance is caught in excellent sound under the balance engineer…