Anna Fedorova immerses herself in Brahms’ late piano works — three sets of “melodies without words” that Clara Schumann herself called poetry distilled to its purest form. Written after Brahms believed his creative life had ended, these vignettes unfold with extraordinary intimacy: the Op. 117 Intermezzi carry the hush of a lullaby for an “inconsolable spinster,” Op. 118 moves from stormy uncertainty to a Ballade’s heroic-tragic turn to a final Intermezzo haunted by the Dies Irae, and Op. 119 closes the collection full circle with a Rhapsody recalling the young composer’s first visit to Robert Schumann forty years earlier. Fedorova finds in this music — tender, nostalgic, quietly reflective — a fitting retreat from the chaos of the present moment.

Anna Fedorova – piano