To Brahms Beethoven's legacy was a heavy burden: 'I will never compose a symphony! You have no idea what spirits come over someone in my position when he always hears such a giant (Beethoven) marching behind him.' Fortunately his statement never came true. Brahms's four symphonies are among the highlights of orchestral music and now available as package at an attractive price.
SKU: HL.49020867
ISBN 9783254009982. German.
Begeisterung' - ist es nicht seltsam, dass wir damit einen Gefuhlszustand meinen, dabei aber den Geist' im Munde fuhren? Doch wer hat gerade bei der Musik nicht schon erfahren, dass das gefuhlshafte Erleben um so intensiver ist, je mehr man vom Geist der Werke erfasst?Ziel dieses Buches ist, Augen und Ohren zu offnen fur musikalische Zusammenhange, die fur viele Musikfreunde noch im Verborgenen liegen. Dazu werden Analysen grosser Meisterwerke in verstandlicher und nachvollziehbarer Form vor dem Leser ausgebreitet. Insofern ist dieses Buch weniger eine Lese- als ein Arbeitsbuch - das Anregungen gibt und Freude am Detail weckt.Die Kompositionen von Buch und CD:Vollstandige Satze aus Mozart-Klavierkonzerten, g-Moll- und Jupiter-Sinfonie, Haydns Sinfonie Nr. 104, Beethovens Eroica', Schuberts 'Grosser', Mendelssohns Klavier/Violine-Doppelkonzert, Chopins und Brahms' 1. Klavierkonzert, Bruckners 7. und Mahlers 6. Sinfonie, Tschaikowskys Pathetique' u.a.
SKU: BR.OB-3210-15
ISBN 9790004300695. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Johannes Brahms' first Piano Concerto was the fruit of a complex, protracted, and extremely trying creative process. Its origin goes back to a sonata in D minor for two pianos conceived in spring 1854. The impulse for the creation of the main subject was however a shocking event: According to Joseqph Joachim, the theme originated after hearing about Schumanns suicide attempt. A few months earlier, Schumann had revealed Brahms to the musical world in his essay New Paths. In this article, Brahms is extolled as the musician who is called to give expression to the feeling of his times in an ideal fashion. The unusually rapid genesis of the D-minor sonata and its prevailingly dark, monumental mood can be interpreted as an impassioned compositional response to Schumann's suicide attempt. However, the year-long struggle to arrive at the final form of the work should perhaps also be seen in the context of the resounding praise of Schumann's prophetic article. Brahms undoubtly felt a growing inner pressure to live up to the expectations aroused therein.Together with Clara Schumann, Brahms played the three so far existing movements of the sonata, but he was very self-critical. He felt that he had not been able to realize the monumentality he had envisioned, and which Clara Schumann felt, by merely doubling the piano sound. He soon decided to transform the sonata into a symphony (his first orchestral project). However, this idea did not seem to fit his vision either. Only in spring 1855 did he strike upon the definitive solution: a piano concerto. With Brahms as soloist, this concerto premiered in 1859, though he initially had little success. He wrote to Joachim about one of the first performances that the concerto was a brilliant and unmistakable - failure. This hardly surprised Brahms, for he was undoubtedly aware of the newness of the work, which surpassed the expectations of the audience. The work's complex structure and symphonic dimensions, the solo part's rejection of showy, elegant brilliance, and the uniquely Brahmsian orchestral density it maintains throughout; all of these qualities inevitably exasperated audiences at first - until they raised this work to the ranks of the most celebrated concertos of all time.
