JOHANNES BRAHMS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 15

JOHANNES BRAHMS

(By F.8.H.)

NEW MESSIAH OF MUSIC

CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH

On May 7—loo. years ago—Johannes Brahms was born in that wonderful town of Vienna. A pupil of Ins father, a double bass player, ho received his musical education (at the piano) when quite young. .He mado his debut in Hamburg at the age of fourteen, playing his own variations on a folk-song. Critics were not slow to .recognise in him a musician of no mean ability and a true successor to Beethoven. Subsequently, on the advice of Joachim, tho Hungarian violinist, he went to Schumann, at Dusseldorf, who published an article, in his paper ; calling 'him the new Messiah of music. ' ■ A wcieomo that was a mixture of blessing and ,bane, embarrassing . the young Brahms with a,mission that was a white elophant on his hands, for he forsook the romanticism which' Schumann and later Liszt expeetcd^of him. However, Schumann's praiso and1 publicity failed to.save;-.Brahms 's first publications ivo\a failure, also the first concert performances ; "of his' three: pianoforte sonatas and three books-of .songs. ■...-'. .-' ■. In 1858-(j2 Brahms retired to Hainburg^ for further study, and in, 1877 Cambridge University offered him the degree of Music-Doctor, an offer which he ignored. In! 1881, however, he ■accepted a doetorship of philosophy from Breslau, and, in. acknowledgment of the honour wrote tho "Academic Festival"; .Overture. His "German Requiem" was given complete in the Bremen Cathedral' in" April 1868, raid established his reputation on the peak, which" it has since remained while storms of debate ranged below. Opera was the only, form in which ho never wrote, and he admitted that he "know nothing about the theatre." ' \ PIKST SYMPHONY. . , His . first-symphony took ten years to compose, .and caused a stir when produced in 1876. He wrote three, symphonies; all of whiih are very popular. His violin concerto in D major, when first shown to Joachim, was 'so impossible for the violin that Joachim laughed at it, until tears ran down Ida cheeks. It was revised,1 and now tho concerto'stands on the plane of the -Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos. '.'■ ■'• ■. '.'■.- •- '■ V' ■. ■ Brahms' was a brilliant pianist in his youth. An illustration of: his ability was, afforded at a concert with Edward jßemenyi, when it was found that the piano was :a semi-tone- b,elow ' concert. •pitch.: Eemenyi refused to tune his .violin to the piano and Brahms transposed without the music the .whole of ..the "Kreutzcr" sonata a semitone higher. ■ ~ ■, ■_■'■'■ .Johannes Brahms' stands ■ for the ultra-claasic in symphonic music, and although' singularly enough he is really a hardy romanticist,; he has widened and deepened the symphonic form."' His life! was an • uneventful one,. he was a severe student and self-clitic, and he mado his way slowly to the top; Brahms V contemporary, Wagner, was having ..a splendid: run, and people hardly: .'took, notice of a, writer ■ of chamber-music, symphonies, and songs; Brahms was completely' eclipsed, in popular esteem iby his so-called rival. Brahms, however, nover placcd.'hiinsclf as an opponent" to Wagner, .and ho was in no. way 'affected by ' the \i-age. for opera. ...- ■- -: MUSIC OF THE FUTURE. Brahms can 'rightly bo cabled the music of tho future, for he is a modern among' tho • moderns! .. His ' themes arc as if carvetl out of granite; they are. bold, yet not dramatic;-and in, his "development he, is 'second- only; to Beethoven. His soiigs are 'tender, .deep in feeling, '.noble, and on a par with those of Schumann, Schubert, or-Franz. He is one' of .the greatest of./ song, writers. : ' ' ■ ;'. : Brahms' leaves no doubt of his genius in Ms '.chamber-music, whether it be in his . violin ' sonatas, trios, quartets,' horn-trio, or clarinet-quintets. His two piano-concerto's in, B flat' major ahcl D minor are masterpieces, -and wero first introduced in America, by RafaelJoscffy; 'Although.'a pianist has to have an enormous, .technique-'to give an acceptable.-performance., of these concertos, they aro perfect in form and are hot sufficiently played. , . A NEW ERA. Yin.".'-Ida writing for tho pianoforte Bralims ■■ introduces a. . new era". His first composition was-a'-sonata which ho "wrote in his twentieth year and labelled Opus, 1. Forty years later he wrote his'-final pianoforte Sonata No. 3 which is very'popular with artists. Its Andante and ; Scherzo are beautiful speaimon|.- ; His bost-known piano works are his „. famous Hungarian Dances, especially" Numbers 3, 5, and G while his E fiat-minor solo Scherzo, Opus 4, was a-great fa-vourjto with Liszt, who saw tho influence -of Chopin in its structure. In his writing ' for violin in conjunction with the piano he reached his. zenith. Brahms wrote three fine sonatas, notably number three, in D minor, which Szigoti played'in Wellington last year. The others in G major and A,,;major arc fine examples of duo writing. The first sonata in G major is marked Opus 78 Though it is believed ho wrote a sonata'long beforo this, but it has sincebeen destroyed or lost. The German Rc,quiem'"is a wonderful work, tremendous, in, its scope- ana' elemental P°Braimis died in 1897 and was laid, to rest alongside'the remains'Ot Beethoven and Schubert in a village near Vienna.' r LOCAL CELEBRATIONS. In the coming Brahms' festival, to bo held in Wellington, music-lovers should not miss this opportunity ot hearing the master's great works, which will include songs,' sonatas, and chamber music.' After the -success ot last year's 'Haydn festival it is proposed to. hold another medal competition among pianists and singers. I hemodal has boon specially > executed tor the festival committee by a European artist and '-engraver...