Brahms Op. 119 Nos. 1 and 2

[thalberg]

This Brahms is from a recital I played 5 years ago. 

[counterpoint]

 

for No.2 some extra 

[furtwaengler]

Well you did such a nice job on the Berg that this could only be natural, and sure enough, the B minor is irresistible. Thanks so much for bringing out the middle voice about 6 measures from the end.

...And I really should have reserved the word irresistible for no. 2, because your line throughout the piece, sir, is absolutely impeccable. It's obsessively sustained, and I can taste it. You see it through to the end; irresistible indeed! You continue to impress me, Thalberg, but this is your greatest achievement posted yet

[imbetter]

were are 3 and 4? 

[thalberg]

were are 3 and 4? 

Well, I was never very good at 3--it sounds bad.  4 has some mistakes but I'll probably post it later.

Thanks, everyone, for you nice comments

[rachfan]

Hi thalberg,

I really enjoyed listening to your two Brahms intermezzi.  In his piano compositions, Brahms is often very "deep" and writes orchestrally, which presents problems for the artist in terms of interpretation and articulation.  And despite the fact that Brahms was a capable pianist, some of his figuration is not particularly pianistic!  Despite those obstacles, I think your playing was masterful.  You drew a wonderful sound from the instrument and used a full pallet of colors, shadings and nuances too. 

The only piece from Op. 119 that I've played is No. 4, the Rhapsody.  Hearing your recordings here motivates me to take another look at the Op. 119 intermezzi.  Thanks for posting!   

[dnephi]

You had said you played this. I love your voicing and performance of polyphony.
What other choices are there are on pedaling in this piece?

[teresa_b]

I was short on time, so listened to no 2 only--All I can say is    Unbelievably beautiful.

I have tears in my eyes.  Thanks, thalberg.

Teresa

[thalberg]

I was short on time, so listened to no 2 only--All I can say is    Unbelievably beautiful.

I have tears in my eyes.  Thanks, thalberg.

Teresa

Wow......very kind, thank you.   

[rachfan]

I just did some re-reading on Brahms.  For anyone wondering about Brahms the pianist, here's an interesting description from David Dubal's Third Edition (2004) of The Art of the Piano:

"The great master from Hamburg was well-grounded from age seven in piano technique by his first teacher, Otto Cossel, and in 1843 he worked with the eminent teacher Eduard Marxsen.  Within four years he emerged in public concerts.  At age twenty, Brahms had his first encounter with Clara and Robert Schumann, who were at once entranced with his music and piano playing.  Schumann exclaimed, "He is a player of genius who can make of the piano an orchestra of lamenting and loudly jubilant voices".   Besides his own music Brahms performed a massive literature, including Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Toccatas, and the Eroica and Diabelli Variations, and Schumann's works in quantity, giving the premier of Schumann's F minor Sonata.  He premiered his own D minor and B-flat Concertos....  By the premiere of the B-flat Concerto, Brahms was hardly practicing; the English composer Charles Villiers Stanford wrote: 'But never since have I heard a rendering of the concerto so complete in outlook or so big in its interpretation.'"

Wilson Lyle in his Dictionary of Pianists quotes Eduard Hanslick, an accomplished pianist (a pupil of Tomaschek) and an informed critic who said after a Brahms recital featuring Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Schumann's Fantaisie and 3rd Sonata, as well as his own F minor Sonata and Variations on a Theme of Handel, "I cannot imagine a more profoundly, more genuinely effective performance than that which Brahms gave it.  What pleasure it is to hear him play!  The instant he touches the keys one experiences the feeling: here is a true, honest artist, a man of intelligence and spirit, of unassuming self-reliance." 

Lyle goes on to report, however that "Other eye-witness accounts reflect B's attitude towards the keyboard as that of composer rather than pianist and, further that he tended to think orchestrally and was concerned more with passion than
accuracy."

I would add that there are, of course, those true anecdotes about Brahms playing in dance halls, but that was when he was young and trying to survive.  At the other end of the spectrum his 1865 tour was sold out.  In his late years there is no question that he was practicing very little and that his technique had slipped noticeably.  So I think in assessing his proficiency as a pianist, it somewhat depends on the qualifier "when".     

[thalberg]

You had said you played this. I love your voicing and performance of polyphony.
What other choices are there are on pedaling in this piece?

Other choices on pedaling?  I really don't know.  The pedaling eluded me until about a week before this performance.  I'm amazed I even was able to pedal it this way.  I drove my teacher nuts on the pedaling in this piece.  Eventually I got it--looking back now with a few years perspective, the pedaling sounded a lot better than it felt at the time.  Kudos to my teacher for her patience with my pedaling in this piece!