Sic Semper Tyrannis

Months of Johannes Braums, I mean Brahms

I am still in the throes of a library-induced musical overload and don’t really see any end in sight. But that’s how I like it. Let me tell you about one hurdle cleared in my musical education.

This week I’ve listened to the last of the music that the MLS had by Johannes Brahms. He’s one of the major composers so there were quite a few CDs, 16 to be exact. Over the last two or three months, I’ve been on a steady diet of his chamber and vocal works. And I gotta say that overall I am underwhelmed by this supposed titan of classical music. Granted, I’ve become bored with a lot of this kind of common practice music anyway since my introduction to more modern ideas of tonality and compositional methods, but I don’t really hear what exactly places him in the company of your other famous Germans like Bach and Beethoven, (other than the initial B of his last name.) What a shame Mozart had to be born into the family he was, rather than the Bozart family down the street. But he’s done pretty well for himself on the fame front too.

With Brahms, you get the most conservative sounding guy writing in the Romantic era. He still likes his formal precedents, as well as the idea of “music-for-music’s-sake,” unlike his program-obsessed descendents. (However, I must say that I was surprised by the odd four movement concerto every now and then.) So, of all of the Brahms I’ve heard, what has stuck with me? The recordings of the Violin Concerto, performed by Jascha Heifetz and Itzhak Perlman were both pretty impressive in a “gee-whiz-how-do-they-play-that?” kind of way. And I remember liking the Double Concerto for violin and cello, performed by Isaac Stern and YoYo Ma. But that’s about the extent of the Brahms that triggered any brain activity.

Alas, I didn’t hear any recordings of his symphonies, which were largely regarded as the medium for a masterwork by a composer. But judging by how easy it was to get lost in the larger works with chorus, I’m assuming I didn’t miss too much.

Any Brahms scholars are welcome to correct me and tell me what to listen to and for. As it stands right now…I’m moving on to Beethoven.

posted by Mike @ 5:22 PM