Hi All

[Michel]

Hi Everyone,

I was excited to hear that the forum was being totally re-launched so that I thought I would re-register, along with, I am sure, lots of others. Although now I am no longer a student I suspect I won't have much time to post!

Just to give you an update on all those who care:

I now live in London and am training to be a solicitor at a city law firm. Musically, I have been listening to a great deal of modern music, from Cage to Satie and from Varese to Messiaen, which is a real development for me and am actually coming out of the biggest spending spree I've ever had.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing from you all

[lukeottevanger]

Michel.......hmm, rings a bell....haven't we met?

[Harry]

Hi Michel, and welcome again............

[Michel]

Michel.......hmm, rings a bell....haven't we met?

I've been telling new people I've met about you this week. A "near genius", I say.

[bhodges]

Welcome, Michel, and good luck with your solicitor studies.  (And of course, in your listening to contemporary music  ).

--Bruce

[lukeottevanger]

I've been telling new people I've met about you this week. A "near genius", I say.

Yep. I have been near a genius once or twice.

[Michel]

Yep. I have been near a genius once or twice.

Well, when I tell these oxbridge music graduates (who are very informed and intelligent) that my "friend" played Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody when he was only 10, their jaw's drop.

[karlhenning]

Welcome back, Michel! Good listening to you!

[lukeottevanger]

Well, when I tell these oxbridge music graduates (who are very informed and intelligent) that my "friend" played Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody when he was only 10, their jaw's drop.

You got your "s wrong: your friend "played" the Liszt etc. etc.

[Michel]

You got your "s wrong: your friend "played" the Liszt etc. etc.

Haha!

You're too humble, Luke.

Luke, you must write a post about Brahms' greatness; his audacity and confidence to take on the symphonic challenge in Beethoven's wake, his mastery of chamber music, his opposition to Wagner. I am really getting in to his music, these days. Some of his repertoire is certainly the most under-rated romantic music.

[karlhenning]

The Eleven Chorale Preludes, Opus 122!!

[Michel]

The Eleven Chorale Preludes, Opus 122!!

I've not heard these yet understand that they are somber pieces; is that true?

[karlhenning]

I've not heard these yet understand that they are somber pieces; is that true?

I've never heard them as a group, but always one or two on an organ recital.  So what impression they make as a whole, I couldn't say.  Individually, I'd call them sober rather than somber . . . if that is not splitting hairs.

[Michel]

I've never heard them as a group, but always one or two on an organ recital.  So what impression they make as a whole, I couldn't say.  Individually, I'd call them sober rather than somber . . . if that is not splitting hairs.

I suppose the real reason for my question is the result of a cynicism over the intention of the work. It seems so often writers write about a composers' (be it Brahms, Liszt or Shostakovich) "final works" as the products of a withdrawal into solitude either by choice or by illness containing profoundity by the bucketload, either in its appreciation of human life, or by its meditations on death, and so on. I just wondered whether in this case, it was true.

[karlhenning]

Oh, rest easy, there.  They are simply well made pieces;  such that the organists of the world wish that Brahms might have written many more for them.

[Michel]

Oh, rest easy, there.  They are simply well made pieces;  such that the organists of the world wish that Brahms might have written many more for them.

I see. In the same way pianists wish he wrote more of "their stuff" too, I suspect.

[karlhenning]

That's the idea, though the pianists are lucky;  he left them practically an entire literature!

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, rest easy, there.  They are simply well made pieces;  such that the organists of the world wish that Brahms might have written many more for them.

Perhaps, but don't forget that the last one - the last Brahms piece of all, then - is O Welt, ich muss disch lassen. I'm not sure that's entirely coincidental.

[Michel]

Which of the old-timers are still here, or due to come back?

The forum looks dead.

[lukeottevanger]

Thank you very much.