Brahms
The sound of music creeped in my ears this morning, as I was sorting through the Times. I whistled for a bit before recognizing what I was whistling as Brahms's Violin Concerto. Suddenly mad to hear it (this is why I have a lot of CDs - I never know what I'm going to be mad to hear), I put on Itzhak Perlman's recording for EMI. And although I knew every note, the concerto was entirely new. I had never heard this before. How voluptuous, how art nouveau the music sounded! Could this really be Mr Last Classicist? Was it possible that Brahms was all about nothing but pleasure?
Moments like this, when a familiar thing re-presents itself in an almost shatteringly new light, don't happen often anymore, and I'm treasuring it.
Comments
Yes, G.B. Shaw described Brahms as a voluptuary and that is how many of us experience him.
Posted by: Interglossa | July 28, 2007 04:28 PM
I have been in my 'Brahms' mode for a couple of years now; the description of him as a 'voluptuary' seemed so right when I read it :: it fills a need in my ear that Beethoven, even my beloved Fifth, cannot. And as you know, I can really only hear Milstein do it, though Vengerov comes close...
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July 29, 2007 09:13 AM