There’s a lot going on in Michigan.
Our governor has extended her stay-at-home order until the end of April. And closed more businesses she deems “non-essential.” Yeah, like any business that pays taxes, provides healthcare, pays salaries and wages, and allows its owners to stay afloat is non-essential. Maybe to a politicians. But not to the people whose lives depend on it.
Anyway, so people here are – as they are everywhere in the world – getting antsy for government to stop destroying our economies and let us go back outside. At this rate, the reaction to COVID-19 will be far worse than the virus itself.
As a result, I am distracted and far less than in a great frame of mind to fart around listening to Brahms and posting about my experience – especially when, at this point, I’m the only one reading these.
I have an idyllic listening environment. Everything I need, including a book I just bought about Brahms – the first book I’ve ever owned about the legendary German composer.
I have books about Bruckner, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart (lots of Mozart!), Maestro Wilhelm Furtwangler, French horn player Dennis Brain, Maestro/pianist Daniel Barenboim, Haydn, Maestro Georg Tintner, Maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Swedish Nightingale Jenny Lind and plenty more. But, until this project, I’ve never had the urge to read about Brahms. Now I can.
I’m hoping the Malcom MacDonald book is a good one, engrossing and informative.
We’ll see.
As for today’s music – Piano Trio No. 2 in C and Horn Trio in E flat – I’m not hooked. It sounds like a bunch of random notes to me.
At least, that’s what the Piano Trio sounded like. I liked the Horn Trio much better, partly because I love the sound of a French horn.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the violin, too. But the horn is such a beautiful instrument. (This is why I got into Dennis Brain, the legendary British French horn player. His tone was unmistakable and gorgeous.)
I’m going to skip all the times and bios about the musicians. I’m just going to provide my opinion about these two trios.
Piano trio No. 2 in C was composed between 1880 and 1882. Brahms was 47-49 years old.
According to its entry on Wikipeida,
The Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 by Johannes Brahms was composed between 1880 and 1882. It is scored for piano, violin and cello.
In early 1880 Brahms began work on two new piano trios, one in C major, the other in E♭ major. By June he had completed an Allegro movement for each of them, and showed these to Clara Schumann who offered a preference for the E♭ major piece. However, the two trio movements were set aside while Brahms worked on his second piano concerto and third symphony, and by the time he picked up the trios again two years later, the self-critical Brahms had decided to destroy the E♭ major Allegro and concentrate on the C major trio, completing the remaining three movements in the summer of 1882 while on vacation…
My Rating:
Recording quality: 4 (no great shakes; it’s above average)
Overall musicianship: 3 (nothing is amazing me)
CD liner notes: 3 (11-page essay about the life of Brahms, little else)
How does this make me feel: 3 (I could take this or leave it; mostly leave it)
Horn Trio in E flat was composed in 1865. Brahms was 32.
According to its entry on Wikipedia,
The Horn Trio in E♭ major, Op. 40, by Johannes Brahms is a chamber piece in four movements written for natural horn, violin, and piano. Composed in 1865, the work commemorates the death of Brahms’s mother, Christiane, earlier that year. However, it draws on a theme which Brahms had composed twelve years previously but did not publish at the time.
The work was first performed in Zurich on November 28, 1865, and was published a year later in November 1866. The Horn Trio was the last chamber piece Brahms wrote for the next eight years.
Brahms chose to write the work for natural horn rather than valve horn despite the fact that the valve horn was becoming more common. The timbre of the natural horn is more somber and melancholic than the valve horn and creates a much different mood. Brahms himself, however, believed that the open tones of the natural horn had a fuller quality than those produced by valves.
My Rating:
Recording quality: 4 (better than the piano trio)
Overall musicianship: 4 (energetic and fun)
CD liner notes: 3 (11-page essay about the life of Brahms, little else)
How does this make me feel: 4 (I enjoyed the Horn Trio a lot)