Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

[BachQ]

Brahms PC1 in d minor  Gerstein / Dudamel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKVRQXLPdHk

[BachQ]

Brahms PC1 in d minor  Serkin / Szell

1/6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TspOErZUTw

2/6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj1DXJoRljY

[BachQ]

Brahms PC 1 in d minor  Hough h

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TC2Wkv8IS8

[BachQ]

Brahms PC 1 in d minor  Horowitz

1st mvt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq4-Il4-dk

3d Mvt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egWfN-aFv8k

[BachQ]

Brahms PC1 in d minor Arrau

1/3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCKi-z9CgUQ

2/3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6bphz7qKoU

3/3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feePOJ3pvxE

[BachQ]

Brahms PC 1 in d minor  Campanella

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkksP3-R58



Michael Rabin - Wieniawski Concerto No.2 in d minor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6HVWRXI3X0

[karlhenning]

As near-universally likeable as Brahms's music is, it is worth remembering that in his day, there were those who wished he wrote more like The Good Old Days:

After the weary, dreary hours spent in listening to the works of Brahms I am lost in wonder at the amount of devotion accorded him and the floods of enthusiasm with which he is overwhelmed. I endeavor to comfort myself with the thought that even though Brahms gives us nothing in the way of beautiful themes, lovely harmonies or refreshing modulations, his example in preserving those musical forms, which Wagner sought to destroy, might stimulate other composers to enliven the old symphonic molds with melodies of beauty and grace. But, no. What do we see instead? Mistaking Brahms's un-beauty for a new line of thought, his followers amuse themselves with seeking in what a variety of means they, too, can twist and torture a series of commonplace tones and chords.

San Francisco Examiner, 9 May 1894

[eyeresist]

So Brahms is responsible for New Tonalism?

[BachQ]

Brahms PC 1 Barenboim / Rattle / BPO / EUROPA CONCERT IN ATHENS

pt 1 http://www.youtube.com/v/LZEX_siD3yE

Note how Barenboim butchers the octave trills @ 6:29   



pt 2 http://www.youtube.com/v/Q7omvsjY9jQ&feature=related

[BachQ]

Simone Ferraresi: Handel Variations, No. 14

http://www.youtube.com/v/uby5JBdFYUo

(the final note is missing)

[BachQ]

Brahms Horn Trio
Clevenger / Perlman / Barenboim /

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSYZPnhtCC8



Cf. Ligeti's Horn Trio (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMNdFTdCzCs

[BachQ]

Rostropovich & Serkin Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor 3rd mov


http://www.youtube.com/v/-YmXptuK5mw

[zamyrabyrd]

Brahms PC 1 Barenboim / Rattle / BPO / EUROPA CONCERT IN ATHENS
Note how Barenboim butchers the octave trills @ 6:29   

Oh gosh, you saw it too. It was on TV this past week.  Rattle is simply bizarre as a conductor, so distracting with his mannerisms and face pulling.

To clean out my ears, I listened again to Arrau. Besides everything else, like perfect technique and a grand sound, he had a proper structural grasp of the work.

ZB

[BachQ]

Documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/v/gievZ0TiNy8

Brahms: Piano Quartets Renaud & Gautier Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Nicholas Angelich. New release on Virgin Classics

[BachQ]

Brahms Piano Conc.No.2- Van Cliburn / Kiryll Kondrashin (1962/USSR)


http://www.youtube.com/v/Zhl1YxzdsII

http://www.youtube.com/v/UlTcQINtfb8&feature=related

[BachQ]

Boris Berezovsky, Brahms Piano Sonata No.3


1 mvt http://www.youtube.com/v/Zg7mu9jLugE

3 mvt http://www.youtube.com/v/p3qflJ7LP0E

5 mvt http://www.youtube.com/v/VL97RFb-w_Q

[BachQ]

Barenboim Brahms PC 2 / Munich / Celibidache


http://www.youtube.com/v/D18AujwrQb4&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/v/EoH9QOVSqX0

[BachQ]

Andras Schiff offers an average performance of Brahms' 2d PC

http://www.youtube.com/v/NRUrfF7ZwVA

Notice the awkward tempo at 1:26-1:41

Also:

Notice the French horn screw-up at 0:17



http://www.youtube.com/v/qcR4MAw5Vz4

[Senta]

I think this thread needs to be reactivated.... 

I have wanted to be able to really get into Brahms for a very long time, but somehow, he has always eluded me. I loved and studied some of the piano works growing up (especially the Intermezzos), but the orchestral works I never devoted time to studying, I think feeling I wasn't ready to absorb them. I believe firmly that when you are ready for certain music, it finds you, and that is exactly what happened to me this past weekend.

Not one to seek out live performances of Romantics, usually opting for lesser performed modern/contemporary works (and Mahler!), I found myself in Atlanta for their opening weekend there, with a chance to see the ASO on Sunday in Bach, Beethoven and Brahms - the 1st Symphony.

Though familiar with the work in a general way, I felt as if this were the first time I'd heard it in this extremely energetic and gorgeously played performance by Spano and his troops, I even found myself choked up at times during the 2nd mvmt, and also the last, where the dynamic swells seemed as if they made the very walls breathe. Maybe it just took good, live Brahms to make the connection, but the veil that for me cloaked Brahms for so long had suddenly been lifted.

What could be more arresting than that soulwrenching opening, crying toward the heavens, and the incisive rhythmic tumult of the 1st mvmt...with the tragic respite of solo horn and clarinet...

More enveloping than the tenderness and profound sweetness of the Andante...the delayed resolutions reminding us of Tristan's angst...the lonely oboe wandering between the hope and despair of major and minor...and the molten string musings thrillingly underlined by the basses?

Then upon hearing horn and violin as one, in perfect unison...the world crumbles, and the violin takes off on a flight of fancy almost too beautiful to bear, until it can reach no further and comes to rest upon a soft bed of winds.

Next, the noble clarinet leads us into a spring pasture blooming with wildflowers...where we share a fractured Baroque dance with the stream and the deer...

The tour de force of the final movement thrusts into a stormy wilderness before the horn, a la Sibelius 7, gives us a glimpse of transcendence, supported by his cousins, the trombones...

And then a majestic hymn for strings and later winds and timpani, looks forward to Elgar and Holst, and then propels us into the realm of Beethoven, and back into the storm, until the raucous horns take us to its climax. Revisiting the hymn...we find its full flowering in a sweeping arc that takes us through a railing of utmost vehemence, silenced by the horn as a promise of better things to come. The strings foretell romance, and finally we reach the rollicking end where the full orchestra capitalizes on the glorious vision the horn has heralded before.

At least....that's how it seems when I hear it!

I have listened to each of the three recordings I have of Brahms 1st in the last days...some more than once, and am very much looking forward to setting about exploring the other symphonies, and also the concertos. I do know the 3rd also quite well, through Levine's recording with Vienna, and love it...it is the 2nd and the 4th I do not know well so far.

My collection is kind of haphazard of Brahms' orchestral works, I have a small, random smattering of performances of each. The Variations on Haydn are a favorite though.

I know there are MANY good Brahms recordings, and would appreciate a few recommendations.  I am already on the lookout for the rest of Giulini's recordings, I only have his 1st with the WP, which I find a bit slow, but almost no one can top him on the 2nd mvmt! The only complete cycle I have is Eschenbach's, which I got for a song once, and it is surprisingly good, I have enjoyed it a lot.

What are your favorites of his concertos? The Double Concerto is high on my list to get to know.

[rappy]

Hello Santa,

that's a nice story! Concerning the recordings, I must admit I find HvK to be a very good Brahms conductor. For the 4th, Kleiber is a must have. Of the double concerto, I have a recording with Oistrakh/Rostropovich and I'm very satisfied with it. But i would recommend you to get into the piano concertos first, they might be his finest orchestral works and they are maybe not as difficult as the double concerto on the first listening(s).