From: mulford@bach.udel.edu (George Mulford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Brahms
Date: 12 Nov 92 21:57:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BxMIBJ.FFE
Organization: University of Delaware

In article <BxMEuD.Exs@news.udel.edu> conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad) writes:
; 
........[edited]

; I have had a similar, not identical problem with Brahms.  Despite the
; obvious immediate sonic appeal of his music, I found that it took me a
; long time to get interested in each of his pieces.  His manner is
; somehow alien to me.  I can't think of a piece of his (that I know) that
; I dislike now, but it was a struggle with each of them, sometimes
; lasting for years.  And somehow, making the breakthrough with one work
; was no help with the next; I needed to go through the whole thing again
; each time.  I don't call him overrated, but for me he is difficult.  Far
; more so than Wagner.  Still, his fourth symphony, Requiem, and double
; concerto would now go on my all-time list of favorite music.

.........[edited]
; 
; Jon Alan Conrad


Interesting and close to my own experience with Brahms.  There IS
something unapproachable about his music.  I was helped over that by the
warmth of the admiration so many musically knowledgeable people have for
him; but of course there are people who react in the opposite way to
fashion.  I admit that the admiration of others influences my taste.  I
used to think Schubert was shallow in the days when that was the accepted
view; now I think he's deep as Beethoven, just in another way.  Feels good
to bend with the wind.  I will say in my defense that I have never learned
to dislike music I once liked.  That would be too bad.

But getting back to the point:  isn't it strange that the amount of effort
it takes to learn to like a music doesn't seem to alter the outcome?  Nor
is it, or so it seems to me, a function of how "hard" the music is (in
terms of following the counterpoint, say).  I adored Dvorak when I heard
my first piece by him; same with Bach and Josquin.  They're all among my
favorites today, though I know I'll get more out of Bach and Josquin if I
really pay attention, whereas Dvorak peaks out at a less intense level.  On
the other hand, the first time I heard a Wolf song, I probably turned the
radio off.  The second time, I laughed and laughed.  Then slowly I began
to develop a taste and finally a craving for his particular brand of
preciosity.  And now that I know the idiom, I find his lieder as easy to
listen to as anybody's, and more satisfying than anybody else's, and I
can't distinguish my pleasure in Wolf (or Brahms, to return to your
example) from my pleasure in composers who were easier of access. 

Now for a REALLY esoteric angle:

Does anyone know _Jean Christophe_ by Romain Rolland?  Can anyone explain
to me why its eponymous protagonist is so antagonistic toward Brahms?  Is
he modeled on Richard Strauss, and did Strauss feel that way?  Does
Christophe change his mind at the end?  (I confess I didn't make it all
the way.)  Did Rolland himself feel the same way?  Does anyone care?
  
-- 

George W. Mulford                              mulford@brahms.udel.edu
Instructional Technology Center                University of Delaware