I had an odd thought this week when I was looking for a piece to listen to (my apologies to those of you who don’t like sentences which end in prepositions – should I have said “when I was looking for a piece to which to listen”?: I wondered if there were any classical music works out there where the composer was totally unknown. I ran various Google-searches on works by nameless composers, but I kept coming up with pieces by “unknown” composers, i.e. “not well known” – not completely unknown.
I found the Trio in A Major (for piano, violin and cello) that is “attributed to Brahms” so I thought I’d give it a try. A bit of the history of the piece is HERE, and the article explains why scholars believe that the work was most likely composed by Brahms. The Trio is composed in four movements:
The Moderato opens with a tranquil passage on piano played in thirds, and then it is shared with the cello. This passage is repeated now and again throughout the movement, and there was something about it that gave off just a hint of Rachmaninoff. It reminded me of a Rach melody that might turn up in a pop song by Gilbert O’Sullivan or in something akin to “Full Moon and Empty Arms” – but again, there was just a hint of this, and there was no depth to any line as lush and rich as something by the Rach. The better part of the movement was light and airy, but not so joyous as the A major opening to Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4. Overall, though, the mood is filled with contentment. There is a touch of drama after the first repeated section, but then the opening theme returns the trio to the serenity present throughout most of the movement. The second movement starts with a sneaky vivace that sounds a bit devious. It sweeps the listener to a calmer, lullaby-ic (is there such a word as “lullaby-ic”?) trio before returning to the more mischievous slinkiness of the piece’s opening. The third movement is, for the most part, peaceful, but with an added touch of mystery provided by the occasional use of a tango-like rhythm (instead of the straight eighth notes used throughout most of the movement, Brahms (or the unknown composer) threw in some eighth notes followed by a sixteenth rest and a sixteenth note) The final movement is marked as “presto,” but the use of many half notes and whole notes on the melody line with an underscore of more action below (with quarter notes and eighth notes) gives the illusion of a somewhat slower dynamic. Later, the addition of quarter notes followed by two eighth notes provides a bit of a rocking lilt – even more so later when dotted quarters are paired with eighth notes – and then the trio races to its vigorous end. Overall, I did like the work. I wouldn’t say that I loved it. When listening, nothing made me stop in my tracks, so to speak, like when I listened to Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” or Schubert’s “Fantasie in F Minor” – but I did enjoy the work. It was very pleasant.
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I will post my comments and rating later this week. You can listen to the concerto HERE. If you’ve seen my “Top 100 Classical Music Favorites” on this site (HERE) you can easily ascertain that I’m no fan of Brahms. Oh, there are pieces by Brahms I enjoy – it’s not that I don’t like his works – he’s just not one of my “go to” composers when I listen to classical music. For this week, though, when deciding on which piece to listen to, I randomly opened a book I own called Composers, Their Lives and Works, and I landed on pages 158 and 159 – the entry for Johannes Brahms. Opposite a timeline of Brahms’ key works is a quote from Clara Schumann, “It is as though he (Brahms) has been sent by God himself” – and the timeline shows that in 1853, Brahms met “Robert and Clara Schumann, who recognize his genius and promote his career.” The next key date, 1859, states, “Premier of Piano Concerto No. 1 in Hanover, with Brahms himself as soloist.” I decided at that point to listen to Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 not realizing that I have, indeed, heard this piece before. I recognized it immediately when I heard the dramatic opening with its intense timpani roll and impassioned strings. I just haven't listened to it enough to know that this was Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1. Shame on me! So what did I think of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1? Did I enjoy it? Well, yes -- and no. I loved the first movement. With its drama, power, passion and pathos, who wouldn't? However, I'll admit that I wondered what could have been achieved with this movement if it had been in the hands of Beethoven or maybe even Schubert? (Or others?) This criticism might sound a bit harsh, but some sections of Brahms' work sound to me like heavy-handed Hanon exercises for full orchestra. The depth of this concerto just did not reach the same level as the Rach 2 or the Grieg A Minor. Those two concertos hook listeners from the start and hold their interest to the very end. I lost interest with the second and third movements of this Brahms concerto. Even the melodic, slower sections of the Rachmaninoff and Grieg works hold listeners in rapt attention because the music is so beautiful. Not so with this piece. While the first movement might move audiences to stand and cheer for more at its conclusion, the dull Adagio and the run-of-the-mill Rondo might make them just want to stand and leave. My final assessment of the piece: "Wowza-wow" for the first movement; "meh" for the rest. |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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