Haupz Blog

... still a totally disordered mix

Johannes Brahms, op. 118,2

2020-08-29 — Michael Haupt

Composer Johannes Brahms has taken me a surprisingly long time to discover - approaching orchestral music from the point of view of Mahlerian grandeur and expressiveness, I looked down my nose at Brahms' symphonies, which seemed underdeveloped and flat. Ach, the arrogance of the youthful (16, at the time) and inexperienced ...

Anyway. Almost thirty years and several deep expeditions into Brahms territory later (mostly by singing his choral works), I finally stumbled over his piano music. One piece from that corpus in particular gives me something to hold on to and lean back into during these troubling times: his very late Intermezzo. Andante teneramente op. 118,2 (here dreamed by Evgeny Kissin). The tranquility and peacefulness are soothing and help.

Tags: music