Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Started by BachQ, April 07, 2007, 03:23:22 AM

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lukeottevanger

#60
Quote from: D Minor on April 24, 2007, 06:37:49 PM


What's going on there. Nos. 1 and 2 are OK, but then the end of No 2 has been chopped off, and no 3 is not by Brahms, surely - doesn't match my no 3, anyway! Nor is it literate, either - not to mention its unanounced and un-waltzlike bars of 2/4 and its poverty-stricken LH part.... If it's supposed to be by 'Brahms-as-Flint' I think we can say he was a fake ;D

(I stand to be humiliated, here, of course.... ;D It's probably real Brahms that I'm unaware of, and the errors can be explained somehow!)

Quote from: D Minor on April 24, 2007, 06:37:49 PMWhen Geordi La Forge wanted to impress Doctor Leah Brahms who was about to visit him in his quarters, he decided to play a Brahms piano etude, but changed his mind because he thought the idea was too corny.

I don't know, I hardly think Brahms Piano Etudes are the most obvious wooing choice....

Ten thumbs

One of my pleasantist recollections of my youth was playing the first set of Liebeslieder Waltzes in piano duet, either with my father or my sister. I later inherited the Handel Variations from my father. I love that work but for me the closing fugue is far too big and heavy. I'm currently re-practising the two rhapsodies. What I find amazing is now much more Brahms gets into his music without actually advancing harmonically at all.
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

BachQ

Quote from: Ten thumbs on April 25, 2007, 11:21:17 AM
I later inherited the Handel Variations from my father. I love that work but for me the closing fugue is far too big and heavy.

The Handel Variations is a sublime composition, and the fugue is a marvelous capstone to the set of variations.  Many consider the Handel Variations among the top three sets of variations ever composed (alongside Beethoven's Diabelli and Bach's Goldberg).

If you find the fugue too heavy (too big), perhaps it's the recording.  Consider these budget-priced recordings:

Van Cliburn
Katchen
Kovacevich
Fleisher

Don

Quote from: D Minor on May 01, 2007, 11:28:54 AM
The Handel Variations is a sublime composition, and the fugue is a marvelous capstone to the set of variations.  Many consider the Handel Variations among the top three sets of variations ever composed (alongside Beethoven's Diabelli and Bach's Goldberg).


Count me among the many.

BachQ

This coming Monday is Brahms' 174th birthday, and I'll begin Brahms' Birthday @ the BrewpubTM with a biographical tidbit:



Born on May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany, Johannes Brahms was the son of Johann Jakob Brahms and Christina Nissen, a seamstress, who was eleven years older than her husband.   The father earned a precarious living for his family of five as an innkeeper and a musician (he played the horn and double bass). Johannes received his first music instruction from his father. Brahms' was born in this house:



He was born on the 4th floor, second window from the center (you can see his mom waving from the window).


MishaK

Quote from: D Minor on May 01, 2007, 11:53:14 AM
He was born on the 4th floor, second window from the center (you can see his mom waving from the window).

I take it you mean the American 4th floor, i.e. the 3rd European floor?

BachQ

Quote from: O Mensch on May 01, 2007, 12:11:34 PM
I take it you mean the American 4th floor, i.e. the 3rd European floor?

Good point.  Yeah, 4th "American" floor . . . . . .

BachQ

The Johannes Brahms Formula for Composition:

In some of these you seem to be too easily satisfied. One ought never to forget that by perfecting one piece more is gained and learned than by beginning or half-finishing a dozen. Let it rest . . . and keep going back to it and working over it, over and over again, until it is a complete, finished work of art, until there is not a note too much or too little, not a bar you could improve upon. Whether it is beautiful also, is an entirely different matter, but perfect it must be.

        Johannes Brahms, advice to Georg Henschel, 1876


BachQ

When ideas come to you, go for a walk; then you'll discover that the thing you thought was a complete idea was actually only the beginning of a much larger one ...

         Johannes Brahms

greg

Quote from: D Minor on May 03, 2007, 01:49:27 PM
When ideas come to you, go for a walk; then you'll discover that the thing you thought was a complete idea was actually only the beginning of a much larger one ...

         Johannes Brahms

how are you gonna write it down if you're going out for a walk?

MishaK

Quote from: greg on May 04, 2007, 04:39:43 AM
how are you gonna write it down if you're going out for a walk?

Memory?

BachQ

Quote from: greg on May 04, 2007, 04:39:43 AM
how are you gonna write it down if you're going out for a walk?

Greg, you're correct . . . . . . the notepad wasn't invented until 1902 by J.A.Birchall . . . . . . So there would be no way for Brahms to record his ideas . . . . . . :D

Steve

Quote from: D Minor on May 04, 2007, 12:12:53 PM
Greg, you're correct . . . . . . the notepad wasn't invented until 1902 by J.A.Birchall . . . . . . So there would be no way for Brahms to record his ideas . . . . . . :D

Ah, but we are forgetting the incredible, German memory. Alles nicht vergessen!  ;D

BachQ

Quote from: Steve on May 04, 2007, 12:17:12 PM
Ah, but we are forgetting the incredible, German memory. Alles nicht vergessen!  ;D

Although there have been many times when I (personally) would wake up in the morning with a fresh melody in my head, only to forget it as the day progresses . . . . . . thereafter kicking myself for not having written it down . . . . . .

Robert

Quote from: D Minor on May 04, 2007, 12:25:13 PM
Although there have been many times when I (personally) would wake up in the morning with a fresh melody in my head, only to forget it as the day progresses . . . . . . thereafter kicking myself for not having written it down . . . . . .
always keep a notepad and pencil under your  pillow......

Steve

Quote from: D Minor on May 04, 2007, 12:25:13 PM
Although there have been many times when I (personally) would wake up in the morning with a fresh melody in my head, only to forget it as the day progresses . . . . . . thereafter kicking myself for not having written it down . . . . . .

That's a problem after a great practice session. I'll change something in my playing, maybe the ending, and then completely forget my alteration, unless I write it on the score.

Novi

Quote from: D Minor on May 01, 2007, 11:53:14 AM
This coming Monday is Brahms' 174th birthday, and I'll begin Brahms' Birthday @ the BrewpubTM with a biographical tidbit:

Wow, it's going to be one long pub crawl ...  8)

I've ordered Toscanini's Brahms symphony set (NBC) to celebrate, but don't think it will arrive by Monday though.
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

BachQ

More on Brahms' bio:

Brahms held a post as choirmaster, chamber musician, and court pianist-in-residence for three years (1857-60) at the Court of Detmold under the employ of Prince Leopold III of Lippe.  Detmold is 40 miles SW of Hanover, at the cusp of the Teutoburger Wald (Teutoburg Forest).  The castle's modest library enabled Brahms to study Mozart and Haydn scores, as well as the contents of the early volumes of the Leipzig Bach Edition.  The two Serenades Opp. 11 and 16 are closely associated with Brahms's Detmold period, as is the String Sextet in B Flat Major, Opus 18.  This restful period allowed Brahms time to compose his Handel Variations, the  first version of his C minor  piano quartet, Op. 25, and to  complete his D minor piano  concerto.


BachQ

Detmold Castle



Prince Leopold III





BachQ

Three years walking amid the Teutoburger Wald from 1867-1860 provided Brahms with much needed serenity and inspiration.

Teutoburger Wald.