Brahms Intimissimo with Blüthner 1862 Sheila Arnold

• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): 4 Ballades, Op. 10:
• 1 Brahms: 4 Ballades, Op. 10: No. 1 in D Minor. Andante 05:08
• 2 Brahms: 4 Ballades, Op. 10: No. 2 in D Major. Andante 06:45
• 3 Brahms: 4 Ballades, Op. 10: No. 3 in B Minor. Intermezzo 04:16
• 4 Brahms: 4 Ballades, Op. 10: No. 4 in B Major. Andante con moto 07:41
• Jörg Widmann (b. 1973): Intermezzi for Piano:
• 5 Widmann: Intermezzi for Piano: No. 1 00:40
• 6 Widmann: Intermezzi for Piano: No. 2, Zart singend 01:18
• Johannes Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116:
• 7 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 1, Capriccio in D Minor 02:27
• 8 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 2, Intermezzo in A Minor 03:44
• 9 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 3, Capriccio in G Minor 03:25
• 10 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 4, Intermezzo in E Major 04:18
• 11 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 5, Intermezzo in E Minor 02:54
• 12 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 6, Intermezzo in E Major 03:00
• 13 Brahms: 7 Fantasien, Op. 116: No. 7, Capriccio in D Minor 02:50
• Jörg Widmann: Intermezzi for Piano:
• 14 Widmann: Intermezzi for Piano: No. 4, Wiegenlied 04:25
• Johannes Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117:
• 15 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 1 in E-Flat Major. Andante moderato 04:40
• 16 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 2 in B-Flat Minor. Andante non troppo e con molto espressione 04:16
• 17 Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117: No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor. Andante con moto 05:46
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, BWV 870-893:
• 18 Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, BWV 870-893: Prelude in E Major, BWV 878 02:46
• Total Runtime 01:10:19

Info for Brahms Intimissimo with Blüthner 1862

The pianist Sheila Arnold announces her forthcoming album recorded with our partner label CAvi Music, on which she plays Brahms, Bach and Jörg Widmann on a special Blüthner grand piano from the early 1860s. As the instrument was still built with straight strings and not overstretched, its registers are audibly different from those of other grand pianos. Due to its special construction, it has an unmistakable sound quality that offers the listener a further level of multidimensionality.

“In 2022, when I played this Blüthner for the first time, I was left speechless at first – and that only seemed to make the instrument’s sheer eloquence all the more impressive. I immediately and quasi-unconsciously felt inspired to try out the beginning of Brahms’ Intermezzo (Notturno) in E Major, Op. 116. The piece’s dialogue between deep inner longing, on the one hand, and the loveliness and grace of the response suggested by the music, on the other – all of this was ‘simply there’ all at once,” Arnold states. "It seems to me that this Blüthner Grand Salon Piano is the instrument I have been looking for all my life, and I am happy that it has found its way to me. It has a humanity in its timbre, along with clarity of polyphony. The individual notes have depth and lightness; this exceptional instrument possesses the eloquence of human speech and a songlike tone.”

Sheila Arnold, piano

Sheila Arnold
worldwide concert career was launched with outstanding successes at international competitions (the Salzburg Mozart Competition and the Concours Clara Haskil) as well as many scholarships and awards, including the Wiesbaden Mozart Society's Mozart Prize (1995). She has played in many of the great concert halls of Europe, including the Bregenz Festival Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palau de la Música in Valencia, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Hamburg Music Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Stuttgart Liederhalle and the Dortmund Konzerthaus. She has also toured the Near and Far East and the United States.

Sheila Arnold has been invited to perform at many international festivals and has played with leading orchestras such as the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Beethoven Halle Orchestra in Bonn and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom she has performed with include Jesús López-Cobos, Marc Soustrot, Heribert Beissel, Kenneth Montgomery and Michael Hofstetter. Enthusiastic reviews from the international press confirm her status as an unusually versatile musician.

Sheila was born in Tiruchiralpalli in Southern India and grew up in Germany. Her teachers were Heidi Köhler and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. She also drew her ideas from inspiring encounters with the pianists such as Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Ference Rados and Lev Naumov.

Chambermusic activities with violinist Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Isabelle Faust, clarinet player Nina Janssen und Ralph Manno, bassoon player Sergio Azzolini, Horn player Wilhelm Bruns, cellist Guido Schiefen, actor Bernt Hahn or guitarist Alexander-Sergei Ramirez mean inspiration to her on the musical as well as on the personal level.

Sheila’s interest in period keyboard instruments, especially in fortepianos of the 1790’s up to the present times, has been a special and constant source of inspiration. Apart from performances on the modern concert grand she can often be heard on the fortepiano in various chamber musc constellations, in recitals and as a soloist with chamber orchestras. She has been „Artist in Residence“ Kempen in 2006. She has a longstanding duo with classical guitarist Alexander-Sergei Ramírez.

Her CD- and radio productions demonstrate her huge variety in repertoire ranging from baroque music through Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Granados and Scriabin,up to first performances of contemporary music. The latest two CD releases include works by J. Brahms and Clara Schumann as well as a programe for music and literature with actor Bernt Hahn on Robert Schumann and the poets of the romantic period.

In 2005 Sheila gave birth to a wonderful daughter.

In 2006 she received a professorship at the Musikhochschule Cologne. She also gives masterclasses at Schloß Engers in Neuwied (Landesmusikakademie Rheinland-Pfalz), Emsbürener Musiktage, Schloß Hammelburg (Bayrischer Tonkünstlerverband), Bombay (Sangat-Festival) and workshops in different European countries.

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