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.