Brahms ... inexplicable innit

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

attended a recital last night; the two Sextets ..

Performers
Peter Cropper & son Martin violins
Louise Williams, James Boyd violas
Richard Jenkinson, Richard May cellos

outstanding and illuminating playing, not a hint of rumoured thickness/muddy texture ... soaring and searing melodies, the subtleties of orchestration manifest with intensity interplay humour and delight

a once in a lifetime gig in fact

however discussions at interval with musicians from divided camps:
can not stand Brahms at all, here for the players, Britten said that he went to a Brahms concert once a year to listen to how not to compose
others clearly love Brahms's music [as does your correspondent]

i find Britten's music as aversive as the chap above clearly finds Brahms [he was not fond of Britten either] and can not readily explain why except in terms of timbres and what strikes me as posturing

but what it is about Brahms that divides opinion so? that concert was a complete inspiration for most, including many youngsters [at a school] yet one can find critics being very severe in their estimations of Johannes B

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There was a discussion about this is an episode of Music Weekly yonks ago (Michael Oliver was presenting!) and IIRC, the most frequently-cited reasons that people who didn't like Brahms gave for their antipathy were (first) his frequent use of 2 against 3 cross-rhythms (which made them literally feel nauseous) and (second) the middle-range "dark" colours of his Music (Clarinet, Viola, 'cello, Horn sort-of compass).

Which still baffles me, as I adore everything about the guy's Music. (Well, perhaps less so the Piano Sonatas ... but only "perhaps" and only "less so".)

Britten's attitude had changed from a youthful adoration of Brahm's Music, by the way - as a teenager he loved the stuff. He also didn't like Beethoven, and made some of the most stupid remrks I've ever read about the Op111 Sonata. Ho-hum, so it goes.

[Nick Armstrong]

Which still baffles me, as I adore everything about the guy's Music. (Well, perhaps less so the Piano Sonatas ... but only "perhaps" and only "less so".)

Me too, me too and me too.

Calum, lucky you - isn't that main theme in the first movement of the SS No 2 just among the most wonderful things ever - it never fails to make me feel better, nay elated, as it rolls along like a cycle ride on a warm sunny Spring morning

[Tevot]

Me too, me too and me too.

Calum, lucky you - isn't that main theme in the first movement of the SS No 2 just among the most wonderful things ever - it never fails to make me feel better, nay elated, as it rolls along like a cycle ride on a warm sunny Spring morning

I'm looking at and listening to this now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdGtj2eBzGo

As a kid Brahms was always in the background - but as I've got older Brahms - if not taking centre stage - has for me at any rate assumed an importance. He wrote imho beautiful and immortal music I may indeed have mentioned this elsewhere

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

indeed so Caliban; this one gets me too

at first methought this was from the Sarabande by Handel in Barry Lyndon but no i am mistook ....

[aeolium]

Calum, music literature is littered with daft things written by composers about other composers - they're just as capable of such stuff as any other listener! And you've only to look at the periodic threads on this board about composers/works you hate to see that hardly any composer is universally popular.

Why worry about what others think of the music you love? No-one who loves Britten's music is going to worry about your dislike. The reasons why someone's music appeals to A and not to B will always be unfathomable.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm looking at and listening to this now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdGtj2eBzGo

Yes... the tune I mean starts at 6:48 on the 'cello... .

[Roehre]

Brahms is in my top three. for me it is as simple as that.

[kea]

I've seen a few people claim to find Brahms too dry, academic, austere, introverted, difficult, etc—not relatable enough. The slow movements are particularly cited.

I don't subscribe to this view (and Op. 36 is desert island music for me) but perhaps those who do could elaborate, if there are any hereabouts.

[EdgeleyRob]

I couldn't imagine being without Brahms' chamber music.
Probably more so than the rest of his works.
Re the sextets, last movement of No 2,'heading home on a Friday afternoon, sticking 2 fingers up at the working week' music.

[pastoralguy]

These two works have always been 'Desert Island' companions. May I take this opportunity to draw fellow enthusiasts attention to a superb new recording by the Prazak Quartet with Petr Holman and Vladimir Fortin on the PRAGA label
? (PRD/DSD 250 297).

This is one of my discs of the year and I have played it many homes since it arrived. When I die, I'm taking this disc with me! (Along with Ida Haendel's Sibelius violin concerto recording...)

[teamsaint]

I am envious of your attendance at the concert, jazzer.

Brahms more than anybody else is the composer I return to to reground, refocus, or whatever.

If Beethoven does the music in heaven, Brahms will have to do his weekends off.
And the Sextets..........I don't have the words......actually you don't need words, just ears.

[Ferretfancy]

I couldn't imagine being without Brahms' chamber music.
Probably more so than the rest of his works.
Re the sextets, last movement of No 2,'heading home on a Friday afternoon, sticking 2 fingers up at the working week' music.

I do find that the chamber works with piano can make me feel that it's all working a bit too hard. It's as if Brahms is telling us that these works are symphonies without an orchestra. I certainly don't feel that with the string quartets or the wonderful Clarinet Quintet, or the Horn Trio.

I've listened to two fine Brahms performances in the last few days, both from historical sources; the 2nd Piano Concerto recorded by Elly Ney in 1939 /40, and the 3rd Symphony with van Beinum and the LPO from 1946, in fine re-masterings from Dutton. We should certainly not forget the two Serenades,by the way.

[gurnemanz]

indeed so Caliban; this one gets me too

I first got to know Op 18 many years ago when I was in the habit of ripping stuff off the radio onto audio cassette. It has always meant a lot to me. The Raphael Ensemble's version on Hyperion was one of my first CDs.

[Richard Barrett]

The sextets, together with the G major quintet and the Deutsches Requiem, are some of the few pieces of Brahms I enjoy hearing.