CDs – Sarah Beth Briggs Pianist

Small Treasures

Jon Bardi — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 14:32:51 +0000

In her first solo recording for AVIE in 2019, Sarah Beth Briggs’ performances of music by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms were described as “81 minutes of pianistic Heaven” by International Piano Magazine. In her latest offering, Small Treasures, Sarah returns to two of those composers’ greatest sets of miniatures: Schumann’s piano cycle Waldszenen and Brahms’s 4 Klavierstücke, Op.119, his final statement for solo piano. Alongside these, Sarah sets Schumann’s much loved Arabeske from earlier in his composing career and the delightfully fleeting Impromptu by his wife Clara, together with her 4 Pièces fugitives, much lauded in her lifetime. The remaining ‘Treasures’ transport the listener to 20th-century France, comparing works by two members of Paris’s composing circle ‘Les Six’ – Francis Poulenc’s evocative 3 Novelettes (written across a 30-year time span) and Germaine Tailleferre’s Sicilienne. As an encore, Sarah – a former International Mozart Competition winner – ends with a tiny gem by Wolfgang Amadeus: his 1789 Kleine Gigue in G in which light-hearted playfulness mingles with forward-looking chromaticism, miraculously seeming to find common ground with all of the works from the subsequent two centuries included on Small Treasures.

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Variations

sbbadmin — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 11:01:47 +0000

Award-winning pianist Sarah Beth Briggs explores five sets of Variations by great masters of the genre for her fifth AVIE release – some relatively rarely heard on the concert platform. Mozart’s exquisite late Duport Variations pave the way for Beethoven, who after ‘showing the British what a treasure they have in God save the King’ threw out the rule book of traditional variation form in his beautifully crafted yet still much overlooked op 34 set.
Before Briggs concludes with Brahms’s deeply poignant tribute to Robert Schumann, she plumbs the depths of Mendelssohn’s much recorded Variations Serieuses, true to the spirit of the title which indicates the composer’s desire to go far beyond merely demonstrating a pianist’s virtuoso capabilities.

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The Austrian Connection – Sarah Beth Briggs plays Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Hans Gál

sbbadmin — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 10:39:42 +0000

Much lauded for her interpretations of Hans Gál’s concerto and chamber music works, Sarah Beth Briggs presents the composer’s beguiling Three Preludes alongside well-loved works by three of his greatest Austrian forebears – Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. Following meticulous examination of the original scores, Briggs sensitively translates the authentic character of each work to the resources of a modern piano with revelatory results.

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Schumann Papillons and Kinderszenen and Brahms opp 117 and 118

sbbadmin — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 08:43:41 +0000

Award winning pianist Sarah Beth Briggs earned multiple plaudits for her previous AVIE recordings – a Gramophone Critics’ Choice for her pairing of concertos by Hans Gál and Mozart and a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for her Briggs Piano Trio’s pairing of works by Gál and Shostakovich. For her first solo recital recording for AVIE, Sarah turns to some of the greatest collections of Romantic miniatures ever written, largely inspired by one woman: Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann and muse to Johannes Brahms. The twelve short dance movements of Schumann’s early and enigmatic Papillons set the scene, giving way to autumnal, late Brahms – his Op. 117 Intermezzi and Op. 118 Klavierstücke. The album ends as it begins, with youthful Schumann and his lovingly crafted Kinderszenen, written over half a century earlier.

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The Briggs Piano Trio play Gál and Shostakovich

sbbadmin — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 10:53:22 +0000

This CD has won much critical acclaim including:

Gramophone Editor's Choice October 2018
A Europadisc disc of the week
MusicWeb International Recording of the Month November 2018

In this release, Sarah is again joined by eminent Gál exponent Kenneth Woods (who conducted her award winning Gál Piano Concerto recording) this time in his role as international cellist. Together with renowned violin virtuoso, David Juritz, they form the Briggs Piano Trio

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Hans Gál’s Piano Concerto & Mozart Concerto in E flat K482

sbbadmin — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 09:13:05 +0000

British pianist Sarah Beth Briggs, together with Gál aficionado Kenneth Woods conducting the Royal Northern Sinfonia, offers the world premiere recording of Hans Gál’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra alongside Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482. Bringing to light another of Hans Gál’s gorgeously melodic and finely crafted scores, AVIE presents this recording of the Austrian émigré’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Written in 1948, Gál’s large-scale romantic concerto abounds with sweeping phrases and pyrotechnics, yet at the heart of the piece lies the composer’s signature clarity and precision, making the work an ideal coupling for his 18th century Viennese compatriot Mozart’s great E-flat major concerto of 1785. The cadenzas selected for the Mozart Concerto, by Denis Matthews (originally written for Dame Myra Hess) also receive their first recorded performance on this disc

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Haydn, Mozart, Bartok, Brahms and Chopin

sbbadmin — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 09:06:48 +0000

Sarah's recital CDs on Semaphore

Haydn, Mozart, Bartok, Brahms and Chopin recital

‘A varied, generous programme of excellent pianism from performer and composers alike.’ – MusicWeb International

Preview:

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Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, Brahms Handel Variations and music by Britten and Rawsthorne

sbbadmin — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 09:04:16 +0000

Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, Brahms Handel Variations and music by Britten* and Rawsthorne (*Sarah Beth Briggs gave the world premiere of the Britten Character Pieces on this recording)

‘Briggs is a fine artist and enterprising too, adding Brahms’ gritty Handel Variations, Britten’s three early Character Pieces and Rawsthorne’s underrated Bagatelles to a searching performance of the Beethoven Appassionata’ – Sunday Telegraph

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Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn recital

sbbadmin — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 09:02:45 +0000

Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn recital (including Beethoven Sonata in A flat Op.110)

‘… a five star feast … outstanding, splendidly phrased and very expressive …’ MusicWeb International

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Schubert, Beethoven and Mozart recital

sbbadmin — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 19:24:32 +0000

Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven recital (including Schubert Sonata in B flat D960)

‘… wonderful subtlety of colour and shading … for clarity of execution, articulation, tone and pedalling these performances are hard to fault.’

International Record Review

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