Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

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

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Karl Henning

Those Sonatas are among the select few non-Henning works I keep in my playing repertory!  They are THE BEST!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Brahmsian

Quote from: karlhenning on July 18, 2014, 05:09:24 AM
Those Sonatas are among the select few non-Henning works I keep in my playing repertory!  They are THE BEST!

Indeed, Karl.  I know you likely prefer the original clarinet version, but I think both versions (clarinet or viola) work quite well.  I do not have a preference of one over the other.

Jaakko Keskinen

One of the most hilarious Brahms anecdotes even on a par with long live mozart-one is that when Liszt played some of his own pieces to Brahms, Brahms reportedly fell asleep. Not sure if already mentioned on this topic.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Karl Henning

Quote from: Alberich on July 18, 2014, 08:43:26 AM
One of the most hilarious Brahms anecdotes even on a par with long live mozart-one is that when Liszt played some of his own pieces to Brahms, Brahms reportedly fell asleep.

One thing is certain:  It was not one of the bang-bang crowd-pleasers which it is customary to deride Liszt for  ;)   8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Scion7

Quote from: Alberich on July 18, 2014, 08:43:26 AM
One of the most hilarious Brahms anecdotes even on a par with long live mozart-one is that when Liszt played some of his own pieces to Brahms, Brahms reportedly fell asleep.

Yes, he did, but remember it was in the evening after Brahms and Joachim had been walking for miles to get there - I think weariness was more of the cause here than dis-interest. The contempt of Brahms (but not returned by Liszt) came somewhat later - mostly due to Brahms being the cranky man with emotional problems that he was (although absolutely brilliant and a much better composer than Liszt.)
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Jo498

I seem to recall that Liszt (often kind and generous to young colleagues) was quite impressed with whatever pieces Brahms played for him. Although already in the early pieces it seems that Brahms was more conservative than Liszt one could imagine Brahms going in a quite different direction, much closer to Liszt than to Schumann. Take for instance the e flat minor Scherzo or also parts of the early piano sonatas.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

amw

The early version of the B major trio is the most "avant-garde" music Brahms ever attempted (thus why he revised it, due to Clara's disinterest)—his subsequent opus, the Variations on a Theme by Schumann (Op. 9), repudiates it and establishes the style Brahms would maintain more or less unchanged until his death. In between the two came Schumann's suicide attempt and confinement to a mental asylum, which seems to have turned Brahms off "progressive" music for life.

Schumann himself started out as a young avant-gardist (Papillons is about a century ahead of its time in many respects...) before being converted by Mendelssohn; his Fantasie in C was dedicated to Liszt after all. (Liszt reciprocated by dedicating the Sonata in B minor to Schumann a few years later.)

Brahms also admired Wagner, even retaining the manuscript of Tannhäuser in his personal library. At one point Wagner wrote to him to ask for it back. I don't remember what he said. >.> Wagner, in turn, praised Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Handel when the latter played them at one of their several meetings.

Jo498

I think the early scherzo and the f sharp and f minor piano sonatas are in some ways even more "avantgarde" than the trio. (And the latter also has very Schumannian aspects like the signature Beethoven quotation.) Even the d minor piano concerto, despite the final rondo that owes a lot to Beethoven and Bach could be mentioned as a very daring piece. But at the same time Brahms wrote the modest and classicist serenades.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Brahmsian

Some beautiful Sunday morning Brahms choral and orchestra music:

Triumphlied, Op. 55

Bo Skovhus, baritone

Ave Maria, Op. 12
Schicksalslied, Op. 54
Nanie, Op. 82


Gerd Albrecht
Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Begrabnisgesand, Op. 13

Michel Plasson
Dresdner Philharmonie Choir & Orchestra/Ernst-Senff-Chor Berlin

Brilliant Brahms Cube

Madiel

I hope my current orders get here fairly soon, because there's a Brahms disc in each and between them I will have completed my collection of all 24 of Brahms' chamber works. And there will definitely be a Brahms chamber music festival in the offing.

24 is such an auspicious number.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Brahmsian

Quote from: orfeo on July 27, 2014, 06:24:32 AM
I hope my current orders get here fairly soon, because there's a Brahms disc in each and between them I will have completed my collection of all 24 of Brahms' chamber works. And there will definitely be a Brahms chamber music festival in the offing.

24 is such an auspicious number.

Most excellent!!  I should do a Brahms' complete chamber music festival one of these days!  :)

TheGSMoeller

Speaking of Brahms chamber, SQ No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67 accompanied me at work yesterday. The third mvt. Agitato is so seductivly frisky, and the finale Poco allegretto con variazioni is like a relaxing sit on a front porch with a nice glass of wine watching kids play and birds dancing in the sky.
All this from a very well performed and recorded disc from Takacs.


[asin]B001F4YGVY[/asin]

TheGSMoeller

Talking about Brahms had me itching for some piano music, this Lupu disc will do just fine...


Brahmsian

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on July 27, 2014, 06:47:20 AM
Speaking of Brahms chamber, SQ No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67 accompanied me at work yesterday. The third mvt. Agitato is so seductivly frisky, and the finale Poco allegretto con variazioni is like a relaxing sit on a front porch with a nice glass of wine watching kids play and birds dancing in the sky.
All this from a very well performed and recorded disc from Takacs.


[asin]B001F4YGVY[/asin]

+1 Frog Dude!  :)

Brahmsian

Some more beautiful Sunday morning Brahms choral and orchestra music:

Gesang der Parzen, Op. 89

Rhapsody for Contralto, Male Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 53

Anna Larson, contralto

Rinaldo, Cantata for Tenor Solo, Male Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 50

Stig Andersen, tenor

Gerd Albrecht
Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Brilliant Brahms Cube

TheGSMoeller



Madiel

After trying to plan how I might do the 'festival', and finding it too hard to balance, and then realising I already own the first 8 in chronological order, I decided I didn't have to wait for my orders to arrive to get started.  ;D
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Madiel

Right, well, Piano Trio No.1. Thanks to the Beaux Arts boys.

Hmm. I haven't listened to this one in about 4.5 years, before listening to it a couple of times tonight. There's actually a lot of my existing Brahms collection that hasn't seen the light of day anytime recently.

It's the revised version, but even with the revisions Brahms made 35 years later the young Brahms gets a bit wild sometimes, doesn't he? The first movement in particular seems to pack a lot of ideas in, and it only just holds together. Not a lot of the classic Brahmsian reserve. The coda is beautiful, though, and suddenly sounds more like what I expect from him.

I don't know any of the piano works from around the same period, so I don't know how this compares.

The third movement probably sounds a bit more like later Brahms, but even still it has an... openness and naivety to it. This is a young man's music, not very guarded yet.

I like the finale a lot, to me it's probably the single most convincing movement. It's certainly interesting to have a work that started in a major key ending in a minor one!
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Sergeant Rock

#739
Quote from: orfeo on July 28, 2014, 05:29:16 AM
Right, well, Piano Trio No.1.

That was the first piece of chamber music I fell in love with. I heard it during a concert at Ohio U when I was 18. Still love it  8)


Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"