John Browning plays Barber Sonata Op. 26

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

Probably the best performance of this piece. Fantastic!

[@rogerhfisher]

I absolutely worship this masterpiece! Has human angst ever been more incisively portrayed? Barber and Browning are two of the glories of American art and culture.

[@easyaspi1177]

not necessarily

[@seiuntozan]

Clean lines and transpearant harmonic movement make this such an exciting piece of great talent from the composer and the performer.

[@bobbank77]

That is an incredible performance by an incredible artist (and an amazing piece). I've heard him play that piece many times over many decades. All of them brilliant. To hear him play it in his prime... wow.

[@stephenjoeagi]

he was a great virtuoso, and specialized in the music of Samuel Barber. His recording of the Barber Piano Concerto is one of the best. This performance is also great. Thank you for posting.

[@789armstrong]

one of the very greatest performances of this masterpiece.

[@pbarach1]

I saw Browning coach a student on this piece in a masterclass (while chain-smoking).

[@ralphnormington4511]

It was as if Browning was meant to play Barber - amaziing.

[@tronduick7028]

IMHO Barber's violin concerto may be the finest classical work ever by an American, respecting Ives and Bernstein. This is Barber beautiful, but it still sounds an awful lot like the sublime singing of Prokofiev. If somebody gets on here and informs this comes before those I'll be properly corrected -- and grateful. Don't know Mr. Browning but his slow passage work is lambent and his accuracy doesn't obscure the lyricism Barber infuses. Kudos for upload, too.

[@MuseDuCafe]

Barber's Piano Concerto and his 'Cello Concerto are both, imo, better works than the violin concerto, lovely as it is [everything he wrote was meticulously crafted]; those two are spectacular, the former overt [w an incredible middle mvmt, 'Canzona'] and the latter quietly brilliant,and fairly neoclassical. The violin concerto as ''Best classical work by an American,' well, far from it, but Lol, hyperbole of the highest grade AAA order.

[@tronduick7028]

I laugh with you, and we are much more in agreement than not. I will listen to the cello and piano concertos, both of which I haven't heard for too long; and will likely not change my opinion. Thanks for writing and for good information.

[@wildknight1103]

Recorded in 1950? Can that be right? Browning had his 17th birthday on May 23, 1950.

[@kylechen9185]

I don't know, it does say "Obviously at the beginning of a great career" on the screen poster. However, 17 is pretty young...

[@Barpoint212]

Can't be 1950; the recording quality is from well after that period. Horowitz (not Browning) recorded the sonata in 1950, a few months after he premiered it.

[@b1i2l336]

Better than the Horowitz recording,