Brahms, an Intermezzo for Clara

Johannes Brahms was twenty years old when he met the Schumann's, visiting their home in Düsseldorf. Robert Schumann and his wife Clara welcome him with the affection they used to, they listened to his music and encouraged him to continue composing. Robert, who at that time was running a music magazine, praised Brahms by writing: "Here is a chosen one" in an October article of that year 1853, a very fortunate fact since the sense of reality was sadly about to abandon the composer Robert Schumann. In March of the following year, he was admitted to a mental hospital, from which he will not leave until his death, two years later.

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

So the tradition which states that from that meeting Brahms began a long friendship with the Schumann's must be downplayed. If there was an extended friendship, it was with Clara Schumann, whom Brahms continued to see, support and to protect for many years.
Regarding Robert, the affection was not less great, but their encounters took place in the mental asylum, during Robert's few moments of lucidity. Later, Brahms would tell Clara in detail about these meetings since she could not see her husband because the doctors advised against her visit.

Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896)

Clara Schumann, a remarkable pianist, owner of a virtuosity in parallel to that of Liszt or Thalberg, and who, like them, was permanently on tour throughout Europe, was fourteen years older than Brahms. From 1854, the year of Robert's confinement, the young Brahms began to spend long time periods at Clara's house and, despite the age difference, they forged a relationship that until today is unknown if it went beyond friendship, an attachment that will last until Clara's death, a year before that of the enraptured Johannes.

In his last years, Brahms exacerbated his bad behaviour in front of women, whom, at least publicly, he pretended to look over his shoulder. But that was Brahms, the man. Brahms the artist was still the sensitive, tender and delicate boy that Clara met, in whose company, exclusively, the man and the musician could emerge simultaneously.

This is shown in the Six Pieces for Piano – four intermezzi, a ballad and a romanza –, composed in the final stage of his life, in 1892, and dedicated to Clara Schumann –as well a good part of his work. With a successful career accomplished as a pianist and composer, this is a period in which Brahms is offered to us in pieces of an intimate character, pieces for which "one listener is already too much", in his own words.

The Intermezzo No 2 oozes this look backwards, towards himself, in a simple piece without external displays of piano technique. Perhaps he only needed to recall the words he wrote to Clara, in a letter dated almost twenty years earlier, on March 19, 1874:

"Let my deep love comfort you, because I love you more than myself, more than anyone or anything in the world."

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Nikolai Luganski.

 

Händel: Sarabande, from Suite No 2

The family of the German composer Georg Friederich Händel had no musical tradition. Moreover, his father made a living as a hairdresser and barber, a job he skillfully combined with the practice of surgery, when, according to the customs of the age, his science was required.
However, this did not prevent the barber-surgeon from observing early the expressions of talent of his son, who, at age 17, became the organist of Halle, his hometown, after the organist Zachow passed him on everything he knew in the only lessons the composer attended in his entire life.

Händel, an entrepreneur
Against the usual practice of the age, George Friederich Händel was not a musician financially depending on a prince or a high ecclesiastical hierarchy. On the contrary, throughout his existence, he retained complete control over his artistic work by organizing his own musical activities. He was an enterprising person of the eighteenth century, a music entrepreneur, although he never refused the support – with allowances that sometimes had to be negotiated – of the monarchs he frequented.

George Friederich Händel (1685 - 1759)

After making a name for himself in Rome, Naples and Hannover, he traveled to England, where he settled, taking part in three musical societies, either as a musical director, or shareholder, or openly as the sole partner and manager, devoted to the composition and representation of operas and oratories, standing out Messiah, his masterpiece, among the latter.
He achieved success and experienced failures, more of the last than of the first, and yet, he forged a life of fruitful good passing, to the point that Bach tried to meet him, several times, to be told how he did it.

George Friederich never married, although he had the opportunity to do so when he was eighteen. The old Buxtehude left his position as organist in Hamburg and decided that his successor should also take care of his daughter, already quite old, by marrying her. Haendel declined the offer.
He lived his last years almost blind, like Bach. Both were treated by English medical eminences. Apparently, it would be a little while before barbers-surgeons began to dominate the eye chapter.

Suite in D minor – Sarabande
The harpsichord, was a privileged instrument in Haendel's time, along with other related instruments, such as the virginal or the clavichord. It was considered the most suitable for teaching, due to its technical possibilities and because, as a solo instrument, it did not require anyone else for its practice. Haendel, attentive to the needs of this embryonic market, wrote many pieces for the study of the harpsichord, which were published in two editions entitled as "Suites". The piece we hear, in an orchestral version, belongs to the Suite in D minor, its fourth movement, Sarabande, used prominently by Stanley Kubrik in his film "Barry Lyndon". The video is built with images taken from the movie.

Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No 1

The first version of Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovski dates from 1874. At that point in his life, 34 years, and despite his nervous breakdowns, Piotr had already established himself as a composer. So he didn't like the comments he received from keyboard virtuoso Nikolai Rubinstein when he played his first piano concerto before him. Nikolai was his friend, he was the one who had accompanied the provincial Piotr Ilich in his early years in Moscow, showing him the city and opening to him, later, many non-easy doors to cross.

It was Christmas of 1874, and Piotr and Nikolai had been invited to welcome the Russian Santa in the house of a common friend. Nikolai asked Piotr to take his new score so that, on his way to the friend's house, they would go to the Conservatory to examine the just-ended concerto. Piotr agreed with pleasure because he wanted to hear the opinion of a virtuoso, and learn his technical thinking about the many arduous passages the concerto had at that time, and still has. (Interestingly enough, Tchaikovsky was not a piano virtuoso).

When he finished playing the initial movement, Nikolai remained mute, without saying a word. Piotr was not daunted and continued with the other movements.
–Well...? –He asked at the end of the full concerto.
Nikolai spared no irreverence. He said that the concerto was worthless, that it was unenforceable, that the themes were unfortunate, in short, he treated Piotr as an inexperienced and incapable beginner. This, at least, was what Piotr Ilich understood. Three years later Tchaikovsky shared what happened with his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck:

"I was not only astounded but outraged by the whole scene. I am no longer a boy trying his hand at composition, and I no longer need lessons from anyone, especially when they are delivered so harshly and unfriendlily."

But all this was not easy for Nikolai. Piotr had planned to dedicate the concerto to this virtuoso of his time but, having cooled the relations as a result of the rude incident, he finally dedicated it to the pianist and director Hans von Büllow, a great admirer of the Russian composer, and who premiered the concerto with him as a soloist in Boston, USA, in 1875, and then conducted it everywhere to great success. Nevertheless, Nikolai's suggestions didn't fall on deaf ears because fifteen years later Tchaikovski redrafted completely the piano part, making the concerto, since then, a favorite piece of piano virtuosos, Nikolai Rubinstein included.

Movements:
I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso - Allegro con spirito
The movement, unusually long (20 min), is opened by the entire orchestra, then enters the main theme carried by the strings accompanied by the magnificent piano chords that have made the entire concerto famous. The movement, a kind of duel between the piano and the orchestra, presents a number of major challenges for the soloist.
II. Andantino semplice - Prestissimo (20:45)
It begins with a theme of great delicacy that first exposes the flute being picked up later by the piano. A central part – prestissimo – serves as a contrast for its lightness and its three-four time.
III. Allegro con fuoco (27:19)
It is built on themes based on Russian dances or folk rhythms. The first theme, rhythmically, shows a strong Russian character. In the final coda, the first theme is heard again, to lead to a thunderous and enormously vigorous ending, which requires the pianist to perform the famous "octave passage" that only some virtuosos manage to address successfully. Anna Fedorova is one of them.

The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie led by Yves Abel.

Antonin Dvorak, Four Romantic Pieces

Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born in a village near Prague on September 8, 1841, and at the age of eight he would show already the skills of a notable musician, accompanying the church choir with his little violin in the afternoons when he would take a rest from his uncommon inclination, the pigeon fancy. He was the eldest of a butcher and innkeeper's children, who did not glimpse for his son another future business than dismembering animals, a craft for which it was essential to know the German language.

In order to learn the language, the butcher sent him to a neighboring city where, fortunately, the young Antonin met a music teacher who after a long and sustained effort finally managed to convince the musician's father to send him to Prague, to study the violin.

Conductor and composer

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

It was a wise decision, as Antonin would show an unbeatable musical talent. Although he did not stand out as a great performer, he nevertheless became a great conductor and composer claimed by the big orchestral groups from all over Europe and even from the USA, being invited in 1891 to take over the New York National Conservatory of Music, where he stayed for two years. From that time dates his most famous composition, the New World Symphony.

A quiet and affable musician
Antonin was a simple musician. He felt upset when, on the top of his fame, the audience applauded more than enough, to the point of leaving the stage even if the theater collapsed clapping. His maxim, according to some scholars, indicated that art should stimulate the desire to enjoy existence. Following this line of thought, he spent his last years teaching at the Prague Conservatory, enjoying a small farm nearby, wherein the summer he used to work in the garden and took care of his beloved pigeons.

"Four romantic pieces"
This group of four small pieces were originally written as a trio for viola and two violins, in January 1887. Dvorak called them "Miniatures." Shortly after, he rewrote them for violin and piano, renaming them "Four Romantic Pieces." Today is a custom replace the violin for a cello, which, in my modest opinion, adds solemnity to these four simple pieces, mainly to the last movement, slow, larghetto, the most beautiful of all (beginning in the minute 9:10). There is speculation that Dvorak was planning to add a fifth movement, since ending a composition with a slow movement was, and remains, unusual.
(A curious note: A video game released in 2010, Civilization 5, contains part of the Larguetto in its soundtrack).

At the piano: Viacheslav Poprugin. Cello: Natalia Gutman.

Domenico Scarlatti, sonata in D minor

The same year that JS Bach and GF Haendel came to the world, in 1685, the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, a son of the opera composer Antonio Scarlatti, and the most prominent of ten brothers, all of them musicians. As expected, it was his father who guided his first steps in music and by 1701, still a teenager, he would be named organist at the royal chapel in Naples.

As an adult, while serving as a teacher of the Julia Chapel, in the Vatican, he does sporadic work for the Portuguese embassy, ​​a job that is not quite clear to us but we suppose related to "events" the embassy carried out, which required the participation of musicians – an extra income.

As a result of this sort of "casual works", Domenico and the Portuguese ambassador forged a close union that led Scarlatti to settle in Lisbon, as the cathedral's chapel master, in the court of Juan V of Portugal. He also had a role as the music teacher of Juan's children, including the charming María Bárbara de Braganza, aged tender eight years, who will show remarkable talent for music and stand out in her maturity as patroness of the arts.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757)

In Spain
Ten years later, at eighteen, Maria Barbara will marry the prince of Asturias, who will later become Ferdinand VI, and thus, María Bárbara will become queen consort of Spain.
The close ties forged between Maria and Domenico prevented the future queen from abandoning her harpsichord teacher and for that reason she took him to Spain, first to Seville and later to Madrid, after her husband was crowned. For long years, Domenico Scarlatti will continue to be the harpsichord teacher of Queen Maria Barbara.

The "exercises"
Nowadays, Domenico Scarlatti is remembered mostly for his short sonatas written for harpsichord, intended for the recreation of the royal family. Around 550 sonatas, single movement, also called "exercises", wrote Domenico throughout his life. An Italian style predominates in some of them, although the Portuguese air and others remembering a Spanish-style are also recognized.

Sonata in D minor, K 141
The brevity of these compositions forces them to be executed only as "encores" by the musicians of our time. The pianist Martha Argerich offers us such a possibility by playing the Sonata in D minor at the end of a concert, in 2008, in Turin.
Two of Scarlatti's main innovations on the keyboard are clearly recognizable here: rapid repetitions of notes and hand crossover.
(Scarlatti's work was compiled by American harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, hence the letter K in the catalog).

Agustín Barrios, Alms for the love of God

Despite having been the greatest guitarist-composer of the last century's first half, after his death in 1944, Agustín Barrios-Mangoré and his music went practically forgotten and for at least two decades the composer and his work were ignored. His purpose perhaps was overshadowed by the omnipresence of two great facilitators of the time's repertoire for classical guitar: Andrés Segovia in Spain with his transcriptions from the Renaissance vihuela and the baroque lute, and Villa-Lobos in Brazil, with his novel compositions of ethnic roots.

All this was happening despite the widespread academic opinion that indicated the undeniable superiority in emotionality, virtuosity and technical quality that Barrios' work entails in comparison with the contributions of the other two great contemporary masters already named – understood Villa-Lobos in his contribution to guitar.
In the 70s, great guitarists such as John Williams or David Russell began incorporating him into their repertoire, making him known for the second time to the world, if that can be said.

Agustín Barrios-Mangoré (1885 - 1944)

The famous tremolo known by its numerous names (The last tremolo, The last song, etc.), among them the highly sentimental Una limosna por amor de Dios (Alms for the love of God), was composed at the end of his life and, in all likelihood, is his last written work. In this piece, as beautiful as it is brief, Barrios shows his great mastery in tremolo technique, the melody entrusted to the soprano voice while a rhythmic motif in ostinato in charge of the middle voice does not rest throughout the piece (hence his name, ostinato).

The impeccable rendition is by the Scottish guitarist, David Russell.