The True Brahms Waltz in A Minor World Premiere Video!

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The World Premiere of the now fabled Brahms Albumblatt in A minor was not in London, England on January 21st, 2012, it was not in Princeton, New Jersey on January 18th, 2012.  As of this past weekend, we learned it was not even on October 8th, 2011 in Kiel, Germany.  In fact the World Premiere was given as an encore during the April 28th, 2011 concert by pianist Craig Sheppard in a public faculty recital at the Meany Theatre, at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Now, how did this come to be?  Professor George Bozarth, the President of the American Brahms Society was made aware of the little waltz in A minor when he was called in as an expert consult by Music Antiquarian John Lubrano.  Mr. Lubrano had seen the album prior to the cataloging phase and was interested in purchasing the album at the Doyle Galleries auction.  When Doyle Galleries published the j-peg of the piece on their web-site, Professor Bozarth who had heard his friend and colleague Craig Sheppard was performing a "Mostly Brahms" recital on the 28th of April, forwarded the link to him on the 23rd of April suggesting he add the then newly discovered piece to his concert.  He also mentioned that Craig would be presenting a World Premiere.  Craig took his advice and added the work as an encore to his recital.  As Professor Bozarth was one of the very few people who knew about the album leaf, there were no prior public performances.

Below, is the video of the true World Premiere of the Brahms Waltz in A Minor, as performed by Craig Sheppard on April 28th, 2011. Mr. Sheppard begins the performance with an explanation of the circumstances in which he came by the piece.