Saturday, March 2nd
timeless
No one ever died from too much beauty.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (Op. 25); Fauré Quartet, live, Tokyo, 2014
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Tag: Johannes Brahms
2023
Thursday, November 2nd
timeless
The other night, driving to Kankakee to see a client in jail, I couldn’t have asked for better company.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Quintet for Clarinet and Strings; Quatuor Ébène with Damien Bachmann (clarinet), live, France (Wissembourg), 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Saturday, December 12th
alone
There are a handful of pianists whose every note I’m hungry to hear—he’s one. (Caution: Do not listen to this as “background” music; if you do, your ears will wither and fall off.)
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950, piano), playing (as detailed below) Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Ravel, published 12/5/20*
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
Program (courtesy of YouTube):
0:00 Bach-Busoni: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
4:07 Bach-Hess: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Scarlatti: Three Sonatas: 7:35 G Major K.9 10:25 G Minor K.450 13:47 D Minor K.14
Chopin: 17:03 Sonata No.3 in B Minor Op.58 41:52 Waltz No.2 in A-Flat Major Op.34 No.1 46:25 Etude Op.25 No.5 49:40 Etude Op.10 No.5
Liszt: 51:24 La Leggierezza 55:56 Gnomenreigen
Brahms: 58:36 Intermezzo in E-Flat Major (abbr.) Op.117 No.1 1:01:44 Intermezzo in A Minor (abbr.) Op.116 No.2 1:04:31 Intermezzo in C Major Op.119 No.3 1:06:08 Capriccio in D Minor Op.116 No.7
1:08:22 Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso
2019
Thursday, October 24th
can’t wait
They’re playing Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s Symphony Center—Beethoven, Shostakovich, Franck, Kurtág.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Scherzo (from F-A-E Sonata); Christian Tetzlaff (1966-, violin), Lars Vogt (1970-, piano), live, Germany (Bremen), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, February 16th
Want to be swept away?
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Violin Concerto in D major; Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Paavo Järvi, cond.) with Hilary Hahn (violin), live, Frankfurt, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Thursday, December 27th
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin; Bella Hristova (violin)
first four movements, live (studio), Boston, 2012
fifth movement (Chaconne), live, Philadelphia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival (until midnight New Year’s Eve)
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musical thoughts
On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.
—Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), on Bach’s Chaconne, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
2018
Tuesday, July 24th
string quartets
day two
Dudok Quartet, live, Amsterdam, 2015*
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lagniappe
random sights
late yesterday, Monhegan Island, Maine
*****
*Program notes courtesy of YouTube:
Pérotin – Selection from Viderunt Omnes
Ligeti – String Quartet no. 2:
I. Allegro nervoso
II. Sostenuto, molto calmo
Debussy – Canope from Preludes, livre II
Ligeti – String Quartet no. 2:
III. Come un meccanismo di precisione
IV. Presto furioso, brutale, tumultuoso
V. Allegro con delicatezza
Brahms – Intermezzo in B minor op. 119 no. 1
2012
Wednesday, 5/9/12
If I knew I had a week to live (as someday I will, whether I know it or not), this is one of the things I’d want to hear.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne in D minor for solo violin (Partita for Violin No. 2 [BWV 1004]); Isaac Stern (violin), live
Another take?
Here (Nathan Milstein).
And here (Gidon Kremer).
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.
—Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
2012
Saturday, 4/14/12
The keyboard is the stage on which the fingers dance.
Sviatoslav Richter, piano
TV performance (CBC, Toronto),* 1964
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lagniappe
reading table
even grass and vines
don’t part willingly . . .
lantern for the dead—Kobayashi Issa, 1822 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
*Johannes Brahms, Intermezzo in E Minor, Op. 116, No. 5
Sergei Prokofiev, Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 14
Maurice Ravel, Jeux d’eau, Alborada del gracioso
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