Another lovely performance from Kissin. I especially like the tempos chosen for the slow movement, which are very slow indeed (I appear to have a thing for slow movements). Brahms' style can appear rather musically ugly (in the sense that he really had no affinity at all for attractive melodies and leaned towards muddy LH textures) and disjointed (very rapid textural changes), but this performance manages to bring structural integrity and clarity to an important and difficult work.

00:00 -- Mvt. 1, Allegro maestoso
09:58 -- Mvt. 2, Andante espressivo
22:26 -- Mvt. 3, Scherzo
27:00 -- Mvt. 4, Intermezzo
30:53 -- Mvt. 5, Finale

Sol Louis Siegel's fine description, which misses out some important structural elements and musical puns that I might put in the description later:

"In terms of both form and expression, Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor is conceived on a grand scale. The first movement, marked Allegro maestoso (though many pianists seem to play it Adagio maestoso), indeed opens majestically, with a theme marked by great solid chords that range across the entire keyboard. The second subject begins lyrically, but it, too, swells in grandeur, and the whole movement builds to a triumphant climax in the bright major mode. The slow movement, Andante, is one of the great love poems in music, its two lyrical themes combining at last in a magnificent expression of rapturous passion. The Scherzo is a dark and dramatic waltz for which the grandly solemn, chordal Trio provides welcome relief. A haunting Intermezzo, a disturbing movement with ghostly echoes of the Sonata's opening, is followed by the Finale, in which a dark, gnarly dance of death is contrasted with a broad, confident chordal second subject. In contrast to conventional sonata practice, the second theme ultimately prevails, bringing this youthful masterwork to a triumphant conclusion."

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