Brahms

The god of chamber music to me

what is he to you?

He is to me the creator of some incredible clarinet sonatas that comfort me and make me feel like i'm in a fairy tale every time listen to them.

More Brahms downloading... I want to check out the symphonic and choral works.

I like his symphonic and choral music better, like the Symphonies, the First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto or the German Requiem.

The god of chamber music to me

what is he to you?

LOL, if he is the God of chamber music, then I am the heir to Herr Beethoven.

Have u heard any of Schubert's 15 stringquartets, his octet, his quintet for strings in C major, which is THE GREATEST chamber work ever written, and his trout quintet in A major?

Brahms is okay, he has written some good chamber works, but he is not at par with Schubert, no way, Beethoven can kick Brahms's butt too in chamber writing, his stringquartets are far more greater.

LOL, if he is the God of chamber music, then I am the heir to Herr Beethoven.

Have u heard any of Schubert's 15 stringquartets, his octet, his quintet for strings in C major, which is THE GREATEST chamber work ever written, and his trout quintet in A major?

Brahms is okay, he has written some good chamber works, but he is not at par with Schubert, no way, Beethoven can kick Brahms's butt too in chamber writing, his stringquartets are far more greater.

This is opinion, don't treat it as fact. In my opinion, I hate Beethoven quartets, I prefer his concerti and symphonies, but I can't stand his quartets. Schubert wrote some ok stuff, but I don't really like much of his work.

LOL, if he is the God of chamber music, then I am the heir to Herr Beethoven.

Have u heard any of Schubert's 15 stringquartets, his octet, his quintet for strings in C major, which is THE GREATEST chamber work ever written, and his trout quintet in A major?

Brahms is okay, he has written some good chamber works, but he is not at par with Schubert, no way, Beethoven can kick Brahms's butt too in chamber writing, his stringquartets are far more greater.

Purely opinion - I've heard the majority of the Schubert chamber works you've mentioned, and in my view he doesn't hold a candle to Brahms. (The C major quintet is a masterpiece, though.)

The Brahms piano quartets and piano quintet are among the greatest chamber music ever written, and in my opinion represent the essence of Brahms far better than does his orchestral output. Every time I listen to them, I hear something new... this is possible because of how tightly constructed they all are, with not a single extra note that doesn't develop a motive. Even Beethoven, for his genius at motivic development, didn't write quite as compactly.

To judge Brahms by his string quartets, IMHO, is unfair, because the three string quartets - while quite good - are all probably among his weakest chamber works. Try the aforementioned piano quartets and quintet, as wells as his piano trios, his string sextets, his horn trio, and his clarinet quintet and clarinet sonatas.

I love Brahms, although I prefer his smaller scale works as well (his requiem being an exception). His art songs are stellar. His symphonies are wonderful as well, but often find myself struggling to get through some of the slower movements due to the scale of it all. Wonderful music though, I love his harmonic language.

Brahms is pretty good, I love his violin concerto and his symphonies.

String Quartets I am a fan of, but more importantly he was a man of ideas and knew how to form them, I like that in a man.

?:toothygrin:

Brahms is my favourite composer (as my username implies). His magnificent chamber works are by far his best compositions. His symphonies are good too but by far the best one is the fourth which one of the saddest symphonies I have heard.

Brahms is one of my favourite composers, I love his chamber works, all of them, but for me his 3rd symohony is the best, and I'm going to to see it performed on the 26th of April! WOOOOO!

Sorry, Mark :glare:

Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra is perfroming Brahm's Symphony N.4 in Eminor this weekend! I consider it to be his greatest, mainly because he was just trying to imitate Dvorak.

?=)

Brahms is the my favourite Romantic composer and I think his chamber music is among the best, if not perfect. I don't think you can compare him with Dvorak! His 4th symphony an imitation? Hope you're joking. There's never been such a powerful final movement in history before.

It's funny that you should say he was trying to imitate Dvorak... because it was Brahms himself who got Dvorak his first big break by writing to publishers on his behalf. Dvorak was heavily influenced by Brahms, not the other way around.

Well, I'd say they shared. They took different things from each other.

Well, I'd say they shared. They took different things from each other.

I don't think that you could say that they shared. But they do have some similarities.

To some extent, they did work closely together. Brahms not much a fan of Bruch, but he definitely loved Dvorak... and even one can see connections between Bruch and Brahms.

I like the Brahms Trio Sonata in A Minor for Viola Cello and Piano. Pretty tricky! I also like the Brahms E Minor cello sonata. Lol yes I'm a cello player. I also do bassoon as my secondary instrument.

I like the comment about a fairytale feeling with Brahms... very apt, to me. The rich, deep sounds are very legend like in my mind. I haven't gotten to play much by him, only a couple of the dances (The omnipresent No. 5 comes to mind) and Symphony 1. Interestingly, I haven't heard any of his numerous vocal compositions, and look forward to hearing the Requiem this Saturday.

Hmm, I kinda feel ambivalent to most of his stuff, as with Mahler. There's just something kind of unsettling about much of his music to my ears. Maybe I need to listen to them more - an acquired taste perhaps?

He's a wizard with string compositions.

Yeah he is. His violin concerto makes my mouth water. And the Rhapsody in Eb always gets me all excited. *jitters with excitement*

Gotta love Brahms.

Will Kirk said:

The god of chamber music to me

what is he to you?

Hit or miss. I love the Requiem. But mostly what I think is that he is overdone, overblown, too big, his compositions are infatuated with themselves, and like Mahler I feel like I am hearing the composer blow hot air. I feel the same about Elgar. I am always listening and thinking, "Oh God, can we please get to the point, I am about sick of arpeggios by now" Sorry, but I have no idea why the three of them are so highly acclaimed (Brahms, Mahler, and Elgar) Definitely of the three Brahms is the best. With Mahler I can even find myself saying I am bored. With Brahms I hold attention well. I am probably exaggerating it a little, but oh well.

But mostly what I think is that he is overdone, overblown, too big, his compositions are infatuated with themselves, and like Mahler I feel like I am hearing the composer blow hot air. I feel the same about Elgar. I am always listening and thinking, "Oh God, can we please get to the point, I am about sick of arpeggios by now"

Interesting. Because my thoughts about Brahms are the exact opposite - I think Brahms's compositions are among the most compact in the history of music, without a single spare note. An incredible amount of motivic development happens in the background.

How funny, you place Rachmaninoff's overblown heavy all-the-same-sounding compositions higher than Brahms.

That must be a joke!

(Maybe I exaggerated a bit, either, but still...)