Tyson
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2003
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As a long time lover of Brahm's music in general I've accumulated quite a number of different recordings of his music of the years. For various reasons I found most of them unsatisfying for one reason or another. I believe the heart of the problem is the paradox and enigma of Brahms' music. On the one hand it is seemingly very straightforward and impeccably crafted from a traditional classical forms standpoint. On the other hand, there is the expanded (and again, seemingly straightforward) passionate intensity of early Romanticism, and finally, there is the modern aspects - odd time signatures, use of "cells" that recur through the music, often in unexpected places or with a melancholy or desolate quality that borders on modern isolation and angst. Add to this the fact that he revised much of his music later in life, which may or may not give it an "autumnal" quality, and it's a paradox indeed!
Most performances I've heard through the years tend to fall into a couple of different interpretive categories. They either emphasize the passionate Romantic side, or the wistful "autumnal" aspect, or some try to go against the grain and play Brahms in a genial, pastoral manner. Within these broader interpretive approaches, some will pay more attention to structure than others, but the structure and construction standpoint seems to vary randomly with each of these approaches.
Almost no one pays much attention to the modernist aspects of Brahms. This has lead to his perceived position as a good composer that does not quite measure up to the giants that came directly before and directly after in his musical universe, ie Beethoven and Mahler. Brahms seems to occupy a middle ground between these 2, never quite "measuring up" to their achievements. On a more personal note, I have never felt this way about Brahms, and in fact I've always felt Brahms' music was greater than most performances conveyed. This lead to me enjoying and appreciating his music immensely, but also left me with a vague dissatisfaction with almost all performances of it, particularly so with the chamber music.
I am happy to say that one set of performances I recently acquired does live up to my expectations and I'm ecstatic that I have been able to hear it. It's the Emerson Quartet's performance of his 3 String Quartets, plus the very substantial bonus of his Piano Quintet, where they are joined by one of the great Brahms pianists, Leon Fleisher. Luckily, the quintet lives up to the same level of greatness as the performances of the string quartets, and for most of the same reasons.
I remember seeing this set on sale and wondering why I'd not seen more press/marketing around it, considering the Emerson's are one of DG's main sellers, and Fleisher's recent comeback to recording has been much celebrated. This release almost seemed to "slip in the back door", instead of being announced with great fanfare, markedly in contrast to the Emerson's recordings of Bartok, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. I believe it goes to the fact that many in classical music don't consider Brahms on quite the same level as these others, and most other performances bear this out. But these performances are revelatory! I figured when I say them they might displace my previous favorite set (the Alban Berg on Teldec), who also have a somewhat modern take on the SQ's. But this is soooo much better, the playing is spectacular, and truly captures almost all aspects of his work - modernism, structure, recurring motif's and musical cells, gentleness, passion, it's all there.
I love about this set that each and every instrument has it's own clear and separate voice. Many groups try to achieve a "blend" to their sound, a unison of playing and timbre that gives the sense of "one player, multiple instruments", but the members of the Emerson quartet maintain separate voices and it is of great service to the music. The "cells" and recurring musical ideas are much clearer now. Many performances tend to favor one instrument at a time, with the others providing a bit more background role, or alternately they will have all the instruments sounding as "unison" at all times, obscuring the specific musical lines for each individual instrument. With the Emersons, you get clear and equal presentation for each voice and it's a beautiful thing to hear. Other performances sound like brahms is almost rambling, going through one idea after another with little or no connection between them. It ends up sounding like a concise presentation of musical ideas but little connecting them into a musical whole. But it's there, just perhaps you hear it first time presented in unison by all instruments, buy maybe next time around it's only on the cello or second violin, maybe dynamics inverted, maybe in form of a variation of original them, brahms does this thing all over the place, but it's just not audible on most recordings. It is here.
Anyway, I could go on much more about this set and why it is my definitive set of any Brahms recording (chamber or not), but you'll hear much more by checking it out yourself. Highly Recommended!!!!
Most performances I've heard through the years tend to fall into a couple of different interpretive categories. They either emphasize the passionate Romantic side, or the wistful "autumnal" aspect, or some try to go against the grain and play Brahms in a genial, pastoral manner. Within these broader interpretive approaches, some will pay more attention to structure than others, but the structure and construction standpoint seems to vary randomly with each of these approaches.
Almost no one pays much attention to the modernist aspects of Brahms. This has lead to his perceived position as a good composer that does not quite measure up to the giants that came directly before and directly after in his musical universe, ie Beethoven and Mahler. Brahms seems to occupy a middle ground between these 2, never quite "measuring up" to their achievements. On a more personal note, I have never felt this way about Brahms, and in fact I've always felt Brahms' music was greater than most performances conveyed. This lead to me enjoying and appreciating his music immensely, but also left me with a vague dissatisfaction with almost all performances of it, particularly so with the chamber music.
I am happy to say that one set of performances I recently acquired does live up to my expectations and I'm ecstatic that I have been able to hear it. It's the Emerson Quartet's performance of his 3 String Quartets, plus the very substantial bonus of his Piano Quintet, where they are joined by one of the great Brahms pianists, Leon Fleisher. Luckily, the quintet lives up to the same level of greatness as the performances of the string quartets, and for most of the same reasons.
I remember seeing this set on sale and wondering why I'd not seen more press/marketing around it, considering the Emerson's are one of DG's main sellers, and Fleisher's recent comeback to recording has been much celebrated. This release almost seemed to "slip in the back door", instead of being announced with great fanfare, markedly in contrast to the Emerson's recordings of Bartok, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. I believe it goes to the fact that many in classical music don't consider Brahms on quite the same level as these others, and most other performances bear this out. But these performances are revelatory! I figured when I say them they might displace my previous favorite set (the Alban Berg on Teldec), who also have a somewhat modern take on the SQ's. But this is soooo much better, the playing is spectacular, and truly captures almost all aspects of his work - modernism, structure, recurring motif's and musical cells, gentleness, passion, it's all there.
I love about this set that each and every instrument has it's own clear and separate voice. Many groups try to achieve a "blend" to their sound, a unison of playing and timbre that gives the sense of "one player, multiple instruments", but the members of the Emerson quartet maintain separate voices and it is of great service to the music. The "cells" and recurring musical ideas are much clearer now. Many performances tend to favor one instrument at a time, with the others providing a bit more background role, or alternately they will have all the instruments sounding as "unison" at all times, obscuring the specific musical lines for each individual instrument. With the Emersons, you get clear and equal presentation for each voice and it's a beautiful thing to hear. Other performances sound like brahms is almost rambling, going through one idea after another with little or no connection between them. It ends up sounding like a concise presentation of musical ideas but little connecting them into a musical whole. But it's there, just perhaps you hear it first time presented in unison by all instruments, buy maybe next time around it's only on the cello or second violin, maybe dynamics inverted, maybe in form of a variation of original them, brahms does this thing all over the place, but it's just not audible on most recordings. It is here.
Anyway, I could go on much more about this set and why it is my definitive set of any Brahms recording (chamber or not), but you'll hear much more by checking it out yourself. Highly Recommended!!!!
