"I will never compose a symphony. You have no conception of how it feels for the likes of one of us when he's always hearing such a giant marching behind him."
-- Brahms, to his friend the conductor Hermann Levi, in early 1870
Note the opus number (15). Brahms won't notch a symphony till Op. 68.
WHAT DO THESE THREE PERFORMANCES HAVE IN COMMON?
WHAT ELSE DO TWO OF THE THREE HAVE IN COMMON?
[NOTE: Not trick questions . . . no, really . . . I don't think]
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15:
i. Allegro
With some early-in-the-movement cue points:
[1] The orchestra sounds the 2nd theme
[2] The piano enters
[3] The piano sounds the 2nd theme . . .
[4] . . . and finally takes it into new territory
Performance A
[1] at 0:55, [2] at 3:19, [3] at 4:31, [4] at 5:53
Performance B
[1] at 1:00, [2] at 3:39, [3] at 4:56, [4] at 6:24
Performance C
[1] at 0:58, [2] at 3:27, [3] at 4:41, [4] at 6:03
Note: I've thrown in those early-movement cue points because, along with the very start of the movement, they can be helpful places to register the conductor's and soloist's abilities, perspectives, and present musical intentions. The very opening orchestral outburst can claim our attention by holding out promise of something important to come, or it can devolve, as it so often does, into slithery, even repulsive orchestral muck. (I always think all those damn trills have something to do with this, if they're grossly or even slovenly executed. This plus maybe the thwacking-away timpani.)by Ken
How quickly, though, this hubbub resolves into the orchestra's first statement of the literally up-rising and potentially so uplifting 2nd theme, whose latent expressive force seems to me the often-underappreciated generative force of the working-out of this enormous movement. The surprising entry of the piano, so effortlessly taking complete control of the show, at first in such a calm way, but rapidly building into such a confident display of energy. Then, when the pianist takes over that 2nd theme, at first it seems unclear where he means to go with it, until he reaches that potentially lift-us-out-of-our-seats restatement that's my last cue.
By the way, in that Brahms quote atop the post, we all know who that "giant" was whom our Johannes was always hearing stomping up on him from behind? Usually when this line is quoted his name is usually added here in brackets, but I don't think we have to do that, do we? -- Ed.
Yes, I know we were supposed to be moving on to the post proper after our two post "teases" in: Sunday's "How do we -- or maybe I mean how did Brahms -- get to this from this?" and predawn Tuesday's "Just a bit more teasing before we get to the main post . . ."). And I had it worked out where we could accomplish what we need to accomplish in something like a single post, or more likely a two-part single post.
Or so I thought.
Then things got complicated. There's still a draft post on e-ice with the working title: " 'Post tease 3'? More than a 'tease,' let's call this Part 1 of our proper Brahms First Symphony post"
AS EARLY AS 1854 BRAHMS THOUGHT HE WAS
HOT ON THE TRAIL OF THAT FIRST SYMPHONY
Even Small Steps Count Dept.: It seems worth noting that our heretofore not-so-mysterious "mystery" piece is Brahms's First Symphony. It wouldn't reach the light of day until November 1876, even though managing to complete a symphony was a feat the composer had been agonizing over, and worked at off and on, back at least to 1854, when he was 21 and a rapidly rising star in the compositional firmament. We'll come back to 1854 in a moment, after noting that by 1876 the 43-year-old Brahms was a recognized master, but always with that nagging reputational asterisk: still no symphonies.
Back to 1854. Brahms had composed three movements of a sonata for two pianos when it occurred to him that at least its first movement could be put into orchestral form and in that form be his gateway to (yes!) a symphony! For whatever reason, he gave up on the symphony idea, but interestingly he didn't give up on the music. He thought he might be able to repurpose the now-enormous orchestral movement into the first movement of (yes!) a piano concerto!
Of course, Brahms being Brahms, the journey to completion of that piano concerto would still cause him plenty of agony, even aas he added an Adagio and a Rondo. He persisted, though, and in January 1859 he played the solo part in the first performance of the D minor Piano Concerto, and kept playing it, and kept working on it. He did venture at one point that in time this piano concerto would win the public's hearts, and that it would be followed by a very one.
Was he ever right, on both counts! Which is why I think the history of the First Piano Concerto makes such a useful counterpart to the history of the First Symphony. Which is why I think, before we see how this story played out in the case of the symphony, we're going to need yet another post to hear how the concerto itself played out.
And since we are going to have another post devoted to the concerto, although I am going to give you another chance to listen to our three performances of the first movement, I'm not going to identify the performers just yet -- I want to have some additional audio clips available for when we do that. I am, however, going to provide a bit of background on our three pianists.
So let's listen again.
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15:
i. Allegro
With some early-in-the-movement cue points:
[1] The orchestra sounds the 2nd theme
[2] The piano enters
[3] The piano sounds the 2nd theme . . .
[4] . . . and finally takes it into new territory
Performance A
[1] at 0:55, [2] at 3:19, [3] at 4:31, [4] at 5:53
Our 29-year-old soloist is heard here, at the considerable height of his pianistic powers in a piece that had played an important role in his meteoric rise to international fame. In this extraordinarily difficult piece, which requires strength, digital finesse, and tonal beauty, I think we hear a feeling of "I can do anything." He would go on to a career of notable length and artistic importance, but not quite the career that he (or we) imagined.
Performance B
[1] at 1:00, [2] at 3:39, [3] at 4:56, [4] at 6:24
Pianist B, who also had a long and distinguished career, is heard here in his second recording of the Brahms D minor Concerto (see below), made in the month he turned 55. His public probably thought of him as, above all, a poet of the piano, but he liked to flash his virtuoso chops. I think both are in display here, in one of the most highly regarded recordings of this piece.
Performance C
[1] at 0:58, [2] at 3:27, [3] at 4:41, [4] at 6:03
It may seem redundant to note that Pianist C also enjoyed a remarkably long and distinguished career -- keyboard careers don't come a lot longer or more distinguished than his. He was also an avid chamber performer (come to think of it, Pianist B was also a valued chamber player), and like Pianist A he would have an outsize influence on future generations of performers. Through that long playing career he would be closely identified with the Brahms concertos; this recording, made when he was 65, is to the best of my knowledge his fifth as well as last of the Brahms D minor (see below for the fourth). His distinctively decisive keyboard touch enabled him to generate a fair amount of sound while maintaining digital accuracy and his own distinctive but pleasing enough sound, and he was a famously insightful interpreter.
BONUS PERFORMANCES
[1] at 1:01, [2] at 3:37, [3] at 4:54, [4] at 6:21
Six years before Performance C
[1] at 0:57, [2] at 3:27, [3] at 4:40, [4] at 5:54
UP NEXT:
We finish up with the Brahms D minor Concerto.
[UPDATE: Well, maybe yes, maybe no. (See the box below.)
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"After-post: As promised, here's a proper quick-sampling of the three Brahms piano quartets" [5/10/2021]
By Borodin Trio et al.: 3 perfs each of 1st mvmt of all 3 Brahms piano quartets (+ Schoenberg orch. of No. 1)"Even if Brahms's new work-in-progress was going to be a piano concerto rather than a symphony, he still had to create forms for it" (aka Part 2 of "More 'pre-post' than 'tease' ") [5/9/2021]
Brahms & Beethoven mini-clips. Perfs A-B-C of Brahms Piano Cto No. 1 = Fleisher-Szell-Cleveland, Curzon-Szell-LSO, Serkin-Szell-Cleveland; bonus perfs = Curzon-van Beinum, Serkin-Ormandy"More 'pre-post' than 'tease': If our sights are set on Brahms's First Symphony, why are we listening to his First Piano Concerto? (Part 1)" [5/6/2021]
"Perfs A-B-C" (+ 2 bonus perfs!) of i. Un poco sostenuto"Just a bit more teasing before we get to the main post . . ." [5/4/2021]
Perfs of 2 Mystery Movements (Brahms 1: ii. Andante sostenuto, iii. Un poco allegretto e grazioso) by Toscanini, Mackerras, Bernstein"Post tease: How do we -- or maybe I mean how did Brahms -- get to this from this?" [5/2/2021]
Start and finish of Mystery Movement (Brahms 1: ii. Andante sostenuto). Perfs by Walter, Herbig, Barbirolli, Furtwängler, Celibidache, Toscanini
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