Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

[Florestan]

....or this - go to 17.09 - the last of the op 113 canons, which is based on Schubert's Leiermann:

Still shocks me with its stark beauty.

Sounds like genuine Renaissance music to me. Awesome, thanks for posting it.

[Luke]

Sounds like genuine Renaissance music to me. Awesome, thanks for posting it.

Pleasure. And if you like Brahms in Renaissance mode, there's this - though you probably know it:

One of my favourite Brahms pieces - though that's a very long list. I believe he and Joachim (or was it Remenyi? or someone else? can't remember right now) were sending each other their counterpoint exercises; this was one of them, written down in a cod-archaic hand. An incredibly assured double canon, expressing a moving steadfastness in the face of mortality  (...sei stille...steh feste...)...but one he could knock off and treat almost as a joke. What a guy.

[Luke]

[I mean, obviously it doesn't sound like real Renaissance music, but it was Renaissance contrapuntal techniques that Brahms was practising in it...]

[Florestan]

if you like Brahms in Renaissance mode, there's this - though you probably know it:

Actually, no, I don't. Brahms' vocal music, except for a few Lieder, Die Schoene Magellone and the two books of Liebeslieder-Walzer is uncharted territory to me --- one that I should set sail to asap, it seems.

[Jo498]

Here is the song I mentioned above (Von ewiger Liebe/Eternal Love). I also support the two op.92 with viola (Geistliches Wiegenlied and Gestillte Sehnsucht). The second link has most of that album by Fassbaender (for some reason the two with viola included on my CD are missing here).

[Florestan]

Decidedly I must start exploring Brahms' vocal output asap. I suspect that it might be his best kept secret, as is the case with, for instance, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn and Grieg. I have the DG Complete Brahms Edition so it's only a question of what to start with --- and when (there is this Complete Massenet Songs Edition, 13 CDs on ATMA Classique which I've acquired very recently and which I sampled yesterday and promised myself to start listening to next Monday; now, all these Brahms recommendations, yummy, yummy --- decisions, decisions... but then again, why not combine them? Hmmmm....)

[Luke]

I have quite a few Brahms lieder sets, but FWIW the one i always return to is this one. I think it's utterly exquisite.

[Brahmsian]

Let me also put in a plug for the works for female chorus. Not everyone's cup of tea and not Brahms' best known works, but highly enjoyable in my opinion.

I only know them through the Chamber Choir of Europe led by Nicol Matt.

For reference, they are:

WoO19, WoO36-38

[Mandryka]

Warning This post reads like Mr Toad's party at the end of Wind in the Willows


I have explored Brahms songs quite a bit. I made this playlist of favourites 10 years ago, and revisited it mid 2022

Julius Patzak Regenlied, Nachtigallen Schwingen

Leo Slezak Feldeinsamkeit.

Julia Culp, Muss es eine Trennung geben.

Karin Branzell, Wanderer.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer.

Ernestine Schumann-Heink - Sapphische Ode. be sure to hear her little speach about he relationship with Brahms.

Emmi Leisner -- Vom Strande.

Lulu Mysz-Gmeiner, Schwesterlein.

Irmgard Seefried Feinsliebchen

Alexander Kipnis, Verrat.

Hina Spani Alte Liebe, Sandmaennchen

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - Liebestreu

Heinrich Rehkemper -- Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen

Karl Erb -- Lerchengesang

Lotte Lehmann -- Wir wandelten

Ria Ginster -- Meine Liebe ist Grun, Botschaft

Kirsten Flagstad -- Meine Liebe ist Grun

Christa Ludwig -- Der Schmied

Elisabeth Schumann -- Der Tod, ist die kuhle Nacht

Irmgard Seefried -- Standchen

Askel Schiotz -- Standchen

Gustav Walter -- Feldeinsamkeit. He sang for Brahms, who I believe liked his style.

Jessye Norman, Daniel Barenboim, Wolfram Christ -- Zwei Gesange

Janet Baker, Andre Previn, Cecil Aronowitz -- Zwei Gesange


The Thomas Allen recital disk with Parsons (really for Parsons)

Fassbaender's Brahms CD, the Janet Baker CD on BBC Legends,

Fischer Diekau's Brahms recital CD with Klust,

FiDi's Brahms with Hermann Reutter

When I did revisit it, and explored some other recordings in Summer last year,  these were the notes I made

I'm listening now to FiDi and Klust from Berlin in 1951/2, an Audite CD with some Beethoven. Mixed views, some things are absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful - es träumte mir, abenddämmerung - and in others he starts to become too forceful for me, too much like a dog barking. Anyway, it's a pleasure to return to this music.

I've just discovered a singer whose voice I rather like, Hidenori Komatsu. He made recordings with Jorg Demus. This one seems the most successful, at least from the point of view of sound

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8625488--schubert-brahms-lieder

I listened to the disc where I made this comment in 2013

The Thomas Allen recital disk with Parsons (really for Parsons)

Bloody hell! The piano playing is astonishing. They must have known what they had because the recording's been balanced «equally» - same prominence to voice and keyboard. It makes me realise that this music, or maybe it's just the selection on Thomas Allen's recording, is contrapuntal - certainly not just voice with accompaniment! I haven't heard the Wolf on the same disc, but if they can do this with Brahms I expect even astonishing, revealing, things there.

Is Geoffrey Parsons always good? I'm surprised that lieder singers let him take so much limelight - you know what they can be like.

Pregardien did an excellent Magelone with Vanessa Redgrave. I like his voice very much, in Rihm for example. I've been enjoying the op 86 on his new Naxos CD.

Bernarda Fink's voice is just not my cup of tea. [Someone had recommended a recording with Bernarda Fink and Roger Vignoles]

Fassbaender's collection of lieder with Irwin Gage is exceptional IMO! I am bracing myself to experience her Zigeunerlieder today,

Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Kurt Streit, Olaf Bär on Warner Classics  -- Fabulous. Totally life enhancing.

[In response to someone mentioning Hotter] I have a Testament recording with Brahms and Schubert and Loewe which I like very much - but my main reason for posting is to recommend enthusiastically his Wolf on Testament. The old recording of Brahms with Ich Habe Genüg on EMI References is, of course, a classic!

Margaret Price. Just a great great singer! Siren song, she was a living siren. The Brahms sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. I'd go as far as to say that if I could only have one Brahms song recording, I'd choose the Price/Lockhart cd.

Tiana Lemnitz is good, I'm enjoying the Brahms and Wolf here. Humanity somehow in the voice, vulnerability.
https://www.amazon.com/Lebendige-Vergangenheit-Tiana-Lemnitz-II/dp/B00000C3PX

[LKB]

Fischer-Dieskau recorded the Magelone songs with Sviatoslav Richter for EMI. I had the recording on vinyl for years, but not for some time now. I recall some very intense singing by DFD, warmly accompanied by his eminent partner.

All of Brahms' choral works are worthwhile in my admittedly biased opinion ( I performed most of them between the 1970's and 2019 ). The Liebeslieder Walzer in particular are popular even among American high-school students, and are probably as accessible to the general public as anything else in the Classical genre.

[The new erato]

Program for the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival 2023, dedicated to a Brahms theme:

https://www.baroniet.no/en/rosendal-festival/program/

My wife and me have festival passes.

[Madiel]

Program for the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival 2023, dedicated to a Brahms theme:

https://www.baroniet.no/en/rosendal-festival/program/

My wife and me have festival passes.

That's a heck of a list of performers. Wow!

[Brian]

Wow indeed!

[Herman]

Decidedly I must start exploring Brahms' vocal output asap. I suspect that it might be his best kept secret

The largest cohort of amateur musicians are people who join each other in choirs for companionship and beauty. Much larger group than amateur pianists or fiddlers. So, no, Brahms's choral music is not a secret.

[Jo498]

The largest cohort of amateur musicians are people who join each other in choirs for companionship and beauty. Much larger group than amateur pianists or fiddlers. So, no, Brahms's choral music is not a secret.

That's true but this seems rather dependent on where one lives, i.e. if there is a tradition of choral singing and to what extent it would include e.g. Brahms (or Reger who is also far bigger with organists and choristers than anywhere else). And this amateur choral singing scene overlaps only partly with typical concert goes and record buyers.

[Herman]

That's true but this seems rather dependent on where one lives, i.e. if there is a tradition of choral singing and to what extent it would include e.g. Brahms (or Reger who is also far bigger with organists and choristers than anywhere else). And this amateur choral singing scene overlaps only partly with typical concert goes and record buyers.

Yes, the latter is true. Participation in amateur music making doesn't necessarily correlate with going to concerts by 'real' musicians. But then, amateur music making is 'real', too.

I'm a non organ-playing Reger fan!

[Brahmsian]

All this talk of Brahms' chamber works has made me want to get another set (leaning towards the 11 disc DG set as it includes some of the Amadeus SQ recordings that I had given away to a friend years ago):

This set includes mostly French musicians, a newer set:





This was the set I gave up years ago to a friend, and I kind of wish I had hung on to. 

[DavidW]

The Hyperion set is my fav.

[Jo498]

What do you already have? The DG is the most "classic" set an dominated by the Amadeus recordings, I think.
I don't know anything about the French one.
Generally, if one has already a set or all the pieces, I'd usually rather pick and choose. Why should one label happen to have the best musicians for a rather diverse set of pieces?
Unless one of them is supercheap (like Brilliant or so).

[Brahmsian]

What do you already have? The DG is the most "classic" set an dominated by the Amadeus recordings, I think.
I don't know anything about the French one.
Generally, if one has already a set or all the pieces, I'd usually rather pick and choose. Why should one label happen to have the best musicians for a rather diverse set of pieces?
Unless one of them is supercheap (like Brilliant or so).

I currently have the Brilliant set, complete Brahms edition. Other than that, just a few odd discs. Again, leaning towards the DG unless I can find the Hyperion at a reasonable price for discs.