{"id":6708,"date":"2011-07-26T18:29:20","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T01:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:51:05","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:51:05","slug":"brahms-is-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/26\/brahms-is-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"brahms is complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love Brahms. There are no two ways about it – I unapologetically adore listening to and performing the music of Brahms. I love practicing Brahms – because to be able to bring off a good performance of Brahms, one must be aware of the fact that Brahms is as much about what he doesn’t<\/em> write as what he does write. Interpreting Brahms’ music is a high-wire act of managing expressions of the deepest emotion that coincide with being held at arm’s length. Brahms, is, in a word, human<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I just had the pleasure of reading a blog post by pianist Jeremy Denk, who describes the mechanics (and emotions) of Brahms brilliantly – I’ll share it here with you now – and its impact is heightened by the fact that the first portion of the post is a hilarious description of his interactions with patrons at a post-concert reception.<\/p>\n

On the patio, I wished myself away to a place in the Brahms Clarinet Trio, which is not a place and has no patio.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go there, you and I, to the 3rd movement, where Brahms, after all the Beethovenian Bother, after all the years and years of working out motives and teasing out abstruse musical thoughts, seems to admit without regret that there\u2019s nothing better or purer than a waltz. It\u2019s all there, the easy phrases, flowing one to the other, sighing, growing\/blossoming like flowers.<\/p>\n

What can you say about that? Brahms says.<\/p>\n

Having written a delicious charming wistful waltz would seem to be self-evident. But here, in the coda, we\u2019ve waltzed, we\u2019ve l\u00e4ndlered, we\u2019ve danced through time, and now\u2014Brahms says\u2014this is what I have to say about waltzing<\/em>, this is what I\u2019ve learned and actually there is only a short time to say it now, because the end of the movement (or death or night) is coming and there won\u2019t be time to say anything anymore. Compressing or compressed\u2014it\u2019s hard to know which, either confined by the pressure of having to say before it\u2019s too late or simply because what he has to say is by its very nature distilled\u2014Brahms utters this last best thing.<\/p>\n

He slows the tempo down. The slowing seems to mean listen closely. These notes (he says) are not going to be easy, simple, they will not flow in easy threes like the others, but they have something to say about the others too.<\/p>\n

And then he folds everything in an embrace. He heads out to the edges of the keyboard, hugging all possible other pitches between widespread hands. For a moment the embrace is major-ish, (D-F#-A-C#), but only for those couple bars, paradise bars that can\u2019t last, then F-sharp becomes F-natural, world of difference, and the beneficent embrace becomes tinged with sadness, like a wave of sadness, and then, the sadness having broken the embrace, we come slowly down the scale, A, G#, F#, E, D, C#, down the sixth (quintessential waltz-interval, summing everything up while bidding it farewell), each note to be played as the one you never want to leave behind. You can\u2019t do better to express in musical notes how a person reluctantly leaves a hug, having not quite accepted departure and distance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the entire post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Brahms. There are no two ways about it – I unapologetically adore listening to and performing the music of Brahms. I love practicing Brahms – because to be able to bring off a good performance of Brahms, one must be aware of the fact that Brahms is as much about what he doesn’t […]<\/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":[225,136,1027],"tags":[2742,2741,2743,3688],"class_list":["post-6708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggers","category-chamber-music","category-piano-music","tag-brahms-clarinet-trio","tag-jeremy-denk","tag-post-concert-receptions","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Kc","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":6708,"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":510,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/01\/denk-on-brahms-and-nostalgia\/","url_meta":{"origin":6708,"position":1},"title":"denk on brahms and nostalgia","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/14\/brahms-sweet-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":6708,"position":2},"title":"brahms sweet brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Johannes Brahms","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":2144,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/15\/mmm-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":6708,"position":3},"title":"mmm, brahms…","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "fun"","block_context":{"text":"fun","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fun\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"churchsign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/churchsign.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12660,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/20\/brahms-tidbits\/","url_meta":{"origin":6708,"position":4},"title":"brahms tidbits","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Above: The alphorn melody heard by Brahms on a walk, written on a birthday greeting to Clara Schumann. Below: The autograph score of the First Symphony, with the horn solo that quotes the alphorn melody written above.","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":"alphornbrahms","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/alphornbrahms-500x277.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":6708,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708","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=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}