Johannes Brahms

This post's going to be about classical music again.

TODAY'S TOPIC IS: BRAHMS!

Brahms is one of those composers that can be grouped in the fame category together with Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Chopin etc. AKA he's one of the big names in classical music. The 'three B's' is a common name for classical music lovers, and they're Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. So you know that if you're going to a concert to hear their music, you're in for a delightful treat. If I scan through a concert schedule, my eye would instinctively pause on his name and browse the repertoire that is to be played. In classical music things work the opposite way. Nowadays people go to gigs for the musician (whether or not the music is composed by them or not), but for classical music, concert goers select based on the composer(s) to be featured.

There are many detailed and insightful articles on Brahms on the internet, but I'm here to give my own personal opinions (what you do in a blog). For me, Brahms has it all. Master of harmony and rhythm, his skills in the use of counterpart is only second to Bach. While he goes crazy experimenting 'new' styles of the Classical Era technique in his own perfectionist way, he still makes sure the foundations of music are firmly locked into his works. His flawless use of development is just as accomplished as Beethoven and Mozart.

To many pianists and music critics, Brahms means power. So it seems but nowadays there are various theories about how Brahms himself would have interpreted his own music. I was made to believe that the technique of playing his works requires a lot of energy and heaviness, but true or not I have no idea. But I trust my opinion because the first ever Brahms piece I heard was of course his famous Violin Concerto and the power of the 3rd just blew me away with it's overflowing vigor.

Itzhak Perlman's version of the 3rd movement (my favourite)


Next up was listening to his First Symphony for the first time; the heaviness and broadness of the opening notes were almost suffocating. It was just like what Michael Stern called it, an 'epiphany' (though he was talking about a different piece.. I guess that word suits a lot of Brahms' pieces). He was also quite a bear of a man and words like 'monster' and 'beast' are often found in comments of youtube videos and articles about him.

The oboe part at 2:25, I wish I could play it *-*


However after I heard more pieces by him, I decided that he was probably not as aggressive as he seems, and concluded that he actually might have been an introvert. The type that had a very exciting inside character that he kept to himself. For example his 2nd Violin Sonata is definitely a lot more light and lyrical compared to his other well known works.

I had the honour of attending a concert which featured Brahms' Tragic Overture, and was lucky enough to sit in the gallery area right above the string section so I could clearly see the sheet music and bowing of the people directly below me. I hadn't heard it before, so the power it brought was beyond astounding to me. All the violinist played with a bow-breaking power which filled the hall with so much richness of sound I thought Brahms himself would have been pleased to hear it. Many players' bow hairs actually snapped int he process. I think this was the piece that made the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra (who was playing that night) to enter my top 3 orchestras list now.

The theme at 2:25 AND MY FAVOURITE BIT at 12:30 (must listen) is really what Brahms is about. It's him in his element


A couple of days ago I went to my local bookshop and found this treasure: the Vienna Philharmonic playing Brahms' 1st Symphony AND the Tragic Overture. And it was discounted to £2.99 so I bought it without hesitation. The Vienna Philharmonic is currently my favourite orchestra (though this may change), which I had decided after listening to a few of their recordings. Their skill is in my eyes second to none, and the sweetness of their sound is so overwhelming that every time a piece is played it's almost perfectly delivered. Not to mention that the orchestra owns 5 Stradivarius instruments, which if you have heard live will know of its subtle distinction from all the other makes. An interesting thing though is that some of my favourite and most renowned violinists of our age and all time, like Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Maxim Vengerov, Eugene Ysaye, Niccolo Paganini, Anne Akiko Meyers, Janine Jansen, Joshua Bell, Yehudi Menuhin, Kyung-wha Chung, Leonidas Kavakos, Fritz Kreisler, Frank Zimmerman, Jascha Heifetz, Akiko Suwanai, Julia Fischer, Midori Goto, Nicola Benedetti, all use Stradivarius violins. I've heard a couple of these soloists lives, and each of them I remember very clearly, down to the notes I particular enjoyed, because the sound of the violins were so unique and hard to forget. Of course the players' world class techniques play a huge part in their sound, but I think their Strads have definitely enhanced their playing which other instruments would not have been able to do. (The bookshop actually has a good collection of CDs that put together a lot of my favourite pieces, for example there was one with all of Bach's 6 violin sonatas, another with Beethoven's 4th and 7th symphonies (my favourite out of the 9.. actually I have 3 favourites: the 4th, 7th and 9th :D), and one with Stravinsky's Petrushka and Ravel's 1st Piano Concerto on one disk, which I very nearly bought if I had liked the orchestra playing it, which I didn't haha.

Listen to them here if you're interested.. Stravinsky and Ravel are 2 of my favourite composers who write that weird, modal/atonal music:

Petrushka


Ravel's 1st Piano Concerto
Listen to it whilst watching the clip from 'The Snowman' below this video in mute. It fits so well!! The theme starts at EXACTLY the same time the snowmen play the flutes!!




Currently, London's Kings Place is doing a programme full of Brahms' works called 'Brahms Unwrapped'.  I only recently found out about it, so I've missed out on a lot already, but I didn't know MY FAVOURITE STRING QUARTET OF ALL TIME the Orion Quartet is coming to take part in the programme!! (I already knew from last year that they were coming this June though, because I actually wrote to them and they replied back thanking me and telling me that they would come to London in 2012 XDDDDDDD) But at that time I didn't know what they were playing. When I saw their name in the brochure, I actually said in my head let it be Beethoven or Brahms, and voila DREAM COME TRUE!! I'll probably go for all three nights because they play a different repertoire each night. Am considering whether to bring a fan sign or not (lol joke) because my love for them is like, unexplainable <3 Plus my exams finish on the 29th May and that's their first night out of the 3!!! It would be the BEST end of exams/start of summer treat for me <3