Johannes Brahms November 19, 2008

Johannes Brahms
David Dubal, pianist, teacher, writer, and Broadcaster

Although Brahms was embarrassed by the famous appellation “The Three B’s,” he was without doubt worthy of being grouped with Bach and Beethoven. As James Huneker attests, Brahms “was the greatest contrapuntist after Bach, the greatest architectonist after Beethoven.” Literally all that he composed, in every genre, is in the world’s permanent repertoire. Though in his later years this complex man was the musical idol of Vienna, he led a life of constant toil. This lecture sheds light on the composer’s dreary youth in Hamburg, as well as his glorious friendship with Robert and Clara Schumann. In both programs young musicians from the Juilliard School will perform segments of Brahms’s music.

This week’s topic:

November 19
Brahms’s Triumphant Middle Years and His Sad and Lonely Later Life: Intermezzo in A Major, Opus 118, No. 2, and the First Movement of the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor

Official Website: http://www.metmusem.org/tickets