Sunday Classics: On second thought, let's start with Brahms's First Piano Quartet

The start of the moody first movement of Brahms's First Piano Quartet is played by pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Giora Schmidt, violist Teng Li, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis at the 2009 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.



by Ken



Change of course here. As of when I posted last night's preview, I fully expected to be continuing today with the hauntingly beautiful second of Brahms's quartets for piano and strings, in A major, which as I noted last night was substantially conceived at the same time as the first, in G minor. However, for grueling technical reasons I'll explain some other time, what I want to do with the A major Quartet I'm just not able to do at this time.



And then it occurred to me that our hearing of the first movements of both of these wonderful quartets could equally well point us toward the G minor Quartet, which as I noted last night has become by a wide margin the most popular of the three Brahms piano quartets, which themselves have undergone a near-miraculous awakening in the last several decades, from works that were for a long time specialty items to works that are played all the time. In addition, on rechecking the earlier post in which I remembered we had sort of "done" the G minor Quartet, I discovered that all we "did" was the concluding "Gypsy Rondo."



So today's subject indeed is not the Second but the First Piano Quartet. Which offers us the additional opportunity of hearing an remarkable take from an unexpected source: Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg loved Brahms in general and this quartet in particular, which he regretted wasn't heard often enough. He hoped the orchestral version would give it more exposure, and at the same time effectively constitute a "Brahms Fifth Symphony." The orchestral dress that isn't really necessary, and sometimes overinflates the piece texturally, but on the whole not only testifies to Schoenberg's affection for the piece and does it proud. This version has understandably become a favorite of many conductors, managing to do honor to the original but also add a delicious layer of affectionately over-the-top commentary.

[UPDATE: Sorry about the defective original version of the above paragraph; it's more or less fixed now!]



FOR OUR DOUBLE TAKE ON BRAHMS'S

FIRST PIANO QUARTET, CLICK HERE

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Sunday Classics preview: Brahms vs. Brahms -- the Opp. 25 and 26 Piano Quartets

The third movement, Andante con moto of Brahms's First Piano Quartet is played by pianist Brian Suits, violinist Kyung Sun Lee, violist Sheila Browne, and cellist Brooks Whitehouse.



by Ken



We've had frequent occasion, most recently in connection with the stark contrasts in the consecutive Beethoven symphonies starting with No. 3, the Eroica, to ponder how often -- and, really, unsurprisingly, composers need to give expression to dramatically different expressive content. Which seemed a natural enough segue into a piece I've been wanting to write about for some time now: the second of Brahms's three quartets for piano and strings, the A major, Op. 26.



Way back when, we heard some of the First Piano Quartet, which I think it would be safe to say has emerged as the general favorite among the set, along with the piano quartets' own emergence from what was for a long time hard-to-explain obscurity. (Nowadays you can hardly turn a street corner without bumping into at least one of them.) And I love it dearly. But somewhere along the line my special affection switched to the Second.



What's interesting about these two quartets, from our present perspective, is that they were largely conceived at the same time. And for tonight I thought it would be interesting just to sample them, in performances by the same team, so that's what we're going to do in the click-through.





IT'S OP. 25 VS. OP. 26 IN TONIGHT'S

BRAHMS-OFF -- CLICK HERE

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Sunday Classics preview: Do we need a reason to listen to the radiant Andante sostenuto of Brahms's First Symphony?

Theo Alcantara conducts the Andante sostenuto of the Brahms First Symphony at Festival Casals, San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 2005. (The whole performance is posted.)

by Ken

We've heard the radiant slow movement of Brahms's First Symphony, back in July 2009, though I see that that Karajan clip has been disappeared. Well, tonight we're hearing it again! I don't think we need a reason, but in fact we have one, which will become clear tomorrow night.


FOR MORE OF THIS GLOWING MOVEMENT, CLICK HERE

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