{"id":2133,"date":"2009-03-14T08:05:20","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2009-03-14T08:05:20","modified_gmt":"2009-03-14T15:05:20","slug":"brahms-sweet-brahms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/14\/brahms-sweet-brahms\/","title":{"rendered":"brahms sweet brahms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Johannes
\nJohannes Brahms<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever fallen in love with a familiar piece all over again?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what happened to me this week with the Brahms 3rd Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the first Brahms symphony that I played, back in the Tacoma Youth Symphony under our wonderful conductor Harry Davidson (now at Duke University).\u00c2\u00a0 I was playing 2nd violin then (only one step away from viola), and it was a tough go for a bunch of kids.\u00c2\u00a0 But I so fell in love with the whole idea of Brahms during that time.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to this week.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t so thrilled about doing the Brahms.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know why.\u00c2\u00a0 I love the 2nd and 4th, and grudgingly admire the 1st (it’s just so in-your-face), and the 3rd just seemed to be the unfortunate step-sibling in my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 That lasted until we got to the glorious, golden, burnished coda of the final movement.<\/p>\n

What a tremendous chorale!\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not show-offy like in the 4th.\u00c2\u00a0 It just emerges, glistening and full of immense, controlled power, and then slips beneath the surface with nary a ripple to show that it ever existed, like a giant sea creature – benevolent but capable of unfathomable feats of strength.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the 3rd movement, with that most glorious of Brahms melodies, played in the celli, that takes forever to unwind, and much patience and discipline, but you get it just right and it seems to float with no apparent effort (but in fact is so difficult to play in this way).<\/p>\n

The 2nd movment features one of Brahms’ favorite instruments, the clarinet, genial and effortless, with little drama and much of a sense of gauzy languidness.<\/p>\n

And don’t forget the opening movement, fierce and surging, concentrated and dense, packing a punch that the rest of the symphony seeks to diffuse.<\/p>\n

Above all, Brahms seems to be writing this piece solely for himself, not for an audience that needs a flashy, big-boned ending, or fireworks in the inner movements where a scherzo ought to be placed.\u00c2\u00a0 No, it’s like a meditation on life – moving from youth to middle-age to the latter years, with grace, humility and a deep sense of one’s self and one’s place in the universe.<\/p>\n

Man, I love this piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johannes Brahms Ever fallen in love with a familiar piece all over again?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what happened to me this week with the Brahms 3rd Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the first Brahms symphony that I played, back in the Tacoma Youth Symphony under our wonderful conductor Harry Davidson (now at Duke University).\u00c2\u00a0 I was playing 2nd violin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,2],"tags":[3666,3668,3662],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-portland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-yp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7153,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/14\/joshua-bell-changes-program-for-portland\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":0},"title":"joshua bell changes program for portland","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope that the Classical Beaver brings a change of underwear for the Oregon Symphony's January 14, 15 and 16th concerts, because the 'rock star' violinist Joshua Bell will now be playing the great Violin Concerto of Johannes Brahms in place of the previously programmed First Concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/brahms5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3184,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/30\/brahms-youthful-concerto\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":1},"title":"brahms’ youthful concerto","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend, the Oregon Symphony is performing the early (op. 15) First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms with the great pianist Jon Kimura Parker.\u00a0 It's long been one of my favorite pieces, a stormy, hyper-emotional, post-adolescent expression of the 25 year old Brahms.\u00a0 I only own one recording of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"brahms","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/brahms-400x355.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4291,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/30\/brahms-double-concerto\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":2},"title":"brahms double concerto","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Coming up after the orchestra's extended spring hiatus is a concert conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. In addition to conducting a work by Malcom Forsyth and Beethoven's First Symphony, he'll be playing the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello with his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth (and leading the orchestra from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14091,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/08\/home-stretch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":3},"title":"home stretch","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems almost as though I posted this entry\u00a0yesterday instead of last August, but here it is, just past the first week of May, and there are just over two weeks left in the Oregon Symphony's 2015-2016 season. It's a pretty cool final month, too. We just finished playing two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pakalakamino\/","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1275520956_21b690f762_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1275520956_21b690f762_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1275520956_21b690f762_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12654,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/13\/beethovens-tenth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":4},"title":"beethoven’s tenth","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Beethoven's Tenth Symphony\" was the moniker assigned (by the noted conductor and pundit Hans von B\u00fclow) to Johannes Brahms' First Symphony, which was some twenty years in its gestation, such was both his own penchant for draconian self-criticism (it's said that he destroyed at least six completed string quartets, allowing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/xyUpyFm_O-k\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1399,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/06\/my-old-friend-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":2133,"position":5},"title":"my old friend Brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow we have a rehearsal for the next Inside the Score concert, which will feature Brahms' First Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the few advantages of playing in an orchestra that has a limited number of classical weeks is that I'm not yet sick of any of the Brahms symphonies, especially the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}