Brahms:
Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major, Op. 83

Strauss:
Burleske for piano & orchestra in D minor

Brahms was 48 years old and at the height of his powers when he completed his Piano Concerto No.2. The Olympian B flat Concerto is, famously, not only one of the most technically challenging of all piano concertos to play but also one of the longest and a supreme test of the soloist’s technique and stamina. Not far behind it in terms of the challenges it presents the soloist with is the early Burleske for piano and orchestra by Richard Strauss. Dedicated to Hans von Bülow as a thank-you present, Bülow however, refused to learn it, considering it to be ‘unplayable’. This may have had something to with the fact that Bülow’s hands could barely span an octave – an insuperable obstacle in a work that demands superlative, stamina-sapping octaves - but which begs the question why the composer should write something so physically unsuitable for his mentor. This is repertoire in which Joseph Moog excels.