{"id":510,"date":"2007-11-01T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/01\/denk-on-brahms-and-nostalgia\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:19:03","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:19:03","slug":"denk-on-brahms-and-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/01\/denk-on-brahms-and-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"denk on brahms and nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Denk, to whom I can only now just genuflect and give homage due, writes in his inimitable style<\/a> about the Brahms G-major Violin Sonata, and in the end almost writes that which cannot be written (almost, to really get it, just listen to the sonata) in some of the best blog writing I’ve seen all year:<\/p>\n

In Mahler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 9th and Schubert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Winterreise<\/em>, to take two extraordinary instances, we have nostalgic works which begin from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153game over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from a condition of preexisting loss, where everything\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhappiness, life, dreams, hope\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas already evaporated from measure one, and we merely count our disintegrating losses. But most composers of nostalgic pieces take the more traditional route: they create worlds of happiness in order to destroy them. This seems, perhaps, mean-spirited? But then the third, unpredictable step is applied, a door is opened onto neither happiness nor despair. An emotional note is sounded on a foreign clef, undermining and questioning the whole previous vocabulary and proposing a more meaningful, but even more evanescent understanding, which perches like a bird on the last note of the piece and flies away never to be heard again. In other words: the place where you arrive at the end of Brahms G Major Violin Sonata cannot be summoned to mind or soul \u00e2\u20ac\u0153on demand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It cannot be remembered. It is perishable, even as an idea. It is the precarious, extraordinary result of all the conflicting codes and messages of all the preceding notes, the message hiding behind the Motive which only tells you, at that moment, what it might have been. Someone is there working through the night for you, deciphering this code, your code, understanding your whole life, and they pass a final translation to you on a piece of paper which \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Denk, to whom I can only now just genuflect and give homage due, writes in his inimitable style about the Brahms G-major Violin Sonata, and in the end almost writes that which cannot be written (almost, to really get it, just listen to the sonata) in some of the best blog writing I’ve seen […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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],"tags":[3659],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-8e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4274,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/28\/diaz-denk-play-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":510,"position":0},"title":"diaz & denk play brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of those recordings that I'm very excited about getting my hands on.\u00a0 Roberto D\u00ecaz, currently the president of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and a former principal violist of both the National Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Jeremy Denk, one of the more exciting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "piano"","block_context":{"text":"piano","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/piano-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/546.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1815,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/03\/brahms-chamber-concert\/","url_meta":{"origin":510,"position":1},"title":"brahms chamber concert","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Violinist Jonathan Dubay and cellist Gregory Dubay will give a concert of chamber music for strings and piano by Brahms with pianist Janet Guggenheim. It's a selection of some of Brahms' best works for strings - the A major Violin Sonata, the E minor Cello Sonata, and the Trio in\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":714,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/28\/brahms-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":510,"position":2},"title":"brahms rules!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was thinking about Brahms this morning as I was getting ready to go to a rehearsal of his Piano Quintet (with pianist Cary Lewis and the Arnica String Quartet - we'll be performing it on Wednesday, February 6 at Noon in the Old Church, Portland). As a violist, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"4358002.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/4358002.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":510,"position":3},"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":7285,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/04\/writing-about-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":510,"position":4},"title":"writing about music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As the old saw goes, writing about music is like dancing about architecture. [for info on the origination of this quote, click here] This is partly true, though I think writing about music, at its best, is often very revealing, and that dancing about architecture could be pretty illuminating, too.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4930,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/29\/mavi-day-two-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":510,"position":5},"title":"mavi – day two report","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I awoke Monday morning with the happy awareness that the Bart\u00f3k performance was behind me, and that it didn't suck, so the day started off pretty well, just by that standard.\u00a0 I taught a couple lessons right after breakfast, which was much more fun than it sounds like, and then\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\/510","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=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}