"Teasing the tonic" is a technique Brahms uses often in these little miracles of piano expression. My favorite is the op 76 C major Capriccio where he takes this playful puzzle of dancing around the tonic to an extreme.
Your analysis, as always, is spot on. I've always loved this piece. But for me, there's something unapproachable about. Like it exist as a perfect jewel, not to be disturbed. But of course one has to play it. The darkness and the restrained passion is irresistible. For an old man like myself, it's like a distant memory of something lovely . Wonderful!
I just got introduced to this piece earlier this summer, so I was very excited to see this video pop up! Really lovely performance and analysis- I really loved how you emphasized the importance of that final tonal resolution that Brahms provides, and the amount of space and gravity you give that moment in your performance is really wonderful.
What a great gift you’ve given today. I for one had no idea, zero - that Brahms wrote anything like this. I am smitten 🥰. Your shop talk about it is fabulous like you always do. Ever many thanks. 🙏🏼
Thank you for the illuminating introduction and exquisite performance, Cole. As ever, just superb: bravo! It is amazing how this Intermezzo is just saturated with descending thirds - and the emotional impact this structure affords the music. In the second half, where the sequences of descending thirds overlap with each other, the discords created are on an even larger scale making it teem with dissonances. Brahms told Clara Schumann in May 1893 that this "little piece is exceptionally melancholy, and 'to be played very slowly' isn’t saying enough. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritardando, as though one wanted to draw melancholy out of each and every one, with a voluptuousness and contentment derived from the aforementioned dissonances." It is even more remarkable that despite the relative brevity of the piece, Brahms is still able to introduce a more consolatory middle section in the major, whose ‘rocking’ melody seems to carry with it a strong sense of yearning.I wonder what Clara thought of the music . . . and if the yearning captured by Brahms reflected his unrequited love for her?
It’s such a beautiful piece - I’ve been playing it a bit lately and it’s on my immediate list to learn properly and record I find some of Brahms’ late pieces a bit strange - meaning I find them hard to make sense of easily. But this one immediately draws me in and sits comfortably in my head Your analysis as always helps me understand why I react the way I do to such music
Thank you for this - both the analysis and the lovely performance. I was introduced to this piece by my college piano teacher. Hearing it the first time almost brought me to tears. One of the most poignant moments in all of piano repertory, sad and haunting and somehow satisfying. May I ask about the instrument on which you play? It comes across on my system as very beautiful.
Thank you for the wonderful explanation and performance of this piece. I have a hard time understanding its meaning--I think it is difficult to describe and therefore, even more difficult to interpret and play.
If you want more piano works similar to Brahms’ late piano miniatures, check out the piano works of Max Reger. Some of his later pieces, such as the gargantuan collection Aus meinem Tagebuch Op. 82, Episoden Op. 115, and especially Träume am Kamin Op. 143 sound like logical extensions of Brahmas’ mature harmony into the 20the century (this should be unsurprising since Reger was an avid proponent of Brahms). Listen to the particularly Brahmsian Op. 143 No. 2 for a start: ruclips.net/video/P7-DW9Kt-cU/видео.htmlsi=spSGtbmmVqyZLARV&t=209
"Teasing the tonic" is a technique Brahms uses often in these little miracles of piano expression. My favorite is the op 76 C major Capriccio where he takes this playful puzzle of dancing around the tonic to an extreme.
Your analysis, as always, is spot on. I've always loved this piece. But for me, there's something unapproachable about. Like it exist as a perfect jewel, not to be disturbed. But of course one has to play it. The darkness and the restrained passion is irresistible. For an old man like myself, it's like a distant memory of something lovely . Wonderful!
I just got introduced to this piece earlier this summer, so I was very excited to see this video pop up! Really lovely performance and analysis- I really loved how you emphasized the importance of that final tonal resolution that Brahms provides, and the amount of space and gravity you give that moment in your performance is really wonderful.
What a great gift you’ve given today. I for one had no idea, zero - that Brahms wrote anything like this. I am smitten 🥰. Your shop talk about it is fabulous like you always do. Ever many thanks. 🙏🏼
Thank you for the illuminating introduction and exquisite performance, Cole. As ever, just superb: bravo!
It is amazing how this Intermezzo is just saturated with descending thirds - and the emotional impact this structure affords the music. In the second half, where the sequences of descending thirds overlap with each other, the discords created are on an even larger scale making it teem with dissonances. Brahms told Clara Schumann in May 1893 that this "little piece is exceptionally melancholy, and 'to be played very slowly' isn’t saying enough. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritardando, as though one wanted to draw melancholy out of each and every one, with a voluptuousness and contentment derived from the aforementioned dissonances." It is even more remarkable that despite the relative brevity of the piece, Brahms is still able to introduce a more consolatory middle section in the major, whose ‘rocking’ melody seems to carry with it a strong sense of yearning.I wonder what Clara thought of the music . . . and if the yearning captured by Brahms reflected his unrequited love for her?
It’s such a beautiful piece - I’ve been playing it a bit lately and it’s on my immediate list to learn properly and record
I find some of Brahms’ late pieces a bit strange - meaning I find them hard to make sense of easily. But this one immediately draws me in and sits comfortably in my head
Your analysis as always helps me understand why I react the way I do to such music
Thank you for this - both the analysis and the lovely performance. I was introduced to this piece by my college piano teacher. Hearing it the first time almost brought me to tears. One of the most poignant moments in all of piano repertory, sad and haunting and somehow satisfying.
May I ask about the instrument on which you play? It comes across on my system as very beautiful.
It reminds me of the Brahms song "Waldeinsamkeit"
Thank you for the wonderful explanation and performance of this piece. I have a hard time understanding its meaning--I think it is difficult to describe and therefore, even more difficult to interpret and play.
If you want more piano works similar to Brahms’ late piano miniatures, check out the piano works of Max Reger. Some of his later pieces, such as the gargantuan collection Aus meinem Tagebuch Op. 82, Episoden Op. 115, and especially Träume am Kamin Op. 143 sound like logical extensions of Brahmas’ mature harmony into the 20the century (this should be unsurprising since Reger was an avid proponent of Brahms).
Listen to the particularly Brahmsian Op. 143 No. 2 for a start: ruclips.net/video/P7-DW9Kt-cU/видео.htmlsi=spSGtbmmVqyZLARV&t=209
Fascinating recommendations-much appreciated!