BRAHMS THE PERFECTIONIST
with Russell Steinberg, Ph.D.
8 Sessions On Zoom
WEDNESDAYS 4:00-6:00PM Pacific Time
APRIL 2- MAY 21, 2025
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8 SESSION SCHEDULE
1. APRIL 2 Life of Brahms and His Process of Developing Variation
We’ll trace the Brahms journey— his early years a a piano virtuoso and composer, his infamous meeting with Franz Liszt, his fateful meeting with Robert and Clara Schumann, his love affair with Clara and her daughter, his complex relationship with Wagner and the Wagner camp, his wrestling with the burden of Beethoven’s legacy, his symphonic struggles and triumphs, his remarkable scholarship and promotion of Bach editions and contemporary composers, (especially Dvorak), and his ultimate pursuit to express the deepest intimacy and nostalgia.
The second part of this session will explore Brahms’ approach to composition, what Arnold Schoenberg coined “developing variation.” Brahms did not create this process. We hear it to some degree in the music of all great composers. But Brahms made this process his universal approach to every composition, in which the music develops exclusively from its opening material.
2. APRIL 9 Chamber Music: Piano Trios
Piano Trio #1 in B major, op. 8; Horn Trio in E flat major, op. 40
The B major piano trio is unique in the Brahms catalog because it is both one of his earliest and one of his latest pieces. For once, Brahms couldn’t destroy the early version, because it had already been published. Nevertheless, later in life, he cast an extensive revision, really more a re-composition, that is the version we know and love today, one with all the seams “hidden.” :)
The Horn Trio is perhaps his deepest work, especially its slow movement, composed in memory of his mother.
3. APRIL 16 Chamber Music: Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet
Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 60; Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34
Both of these piano chamber works are symphonic in scope. In fact, they probably both were originally intended to be symphonies. Brahms labored over the C minor piano quartet for 20 years. It began as an outpouring of his complex love relationship with Clara Schumann. Brahms famously instructed his publisher to attach a cover picture with a man holding a pistol to his head! The F minor piano quintet is a supreme masterpiece in which Brahms really does conjure the power and drama of Beethoven. The scherzo is particularly hair-raising. The slow movement brings tears.
4. APRIL 23 Symphonies Pt. 1
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68; Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73
Brahms was always being heralded as Beethoven’s successor. This heavy burden made heavier by his drive for perfection made for unimaginable stress when undertaking a symphony. Finally by age 40, he felt enough assurance and his first symphony is indeed an answer to Beethoven’s symphonies on many different levels that we will discuss. The second Brahms symphony is as different from the dramatic first as one can imagine. Yet beneath its pastoral brightness and immediacy is some of his most brilliant developmental ideas.
5. APRIL 30 Symphonies Pt. 2
Symphony No. 3 in F major, op. 90; Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98
For many conductors, the Brahms 3rd symphony is their favorite. Audiences adore the scherzo with its gorgeous melancholy theme. Evocation of the deep beauty in German folksong inspires the second movement. The first movement is rich in deep harmony and rhythmic hemiolas. But then there is the fourth symphony that begins with the unforgettable tune of cascading thirds and ends with the famous passacaglia, a continue repetition of 8 measures that always sounds new and in foreward motion.
6. MAY 7 Brahms Lieder
While we all know the Brahms Lullaby, but do you know his far greater Sacred Lullaby? (Geistliche Wiegenlied). And there are hundreds more that make Brahms one of the great songwriters of all time. We’ll hear his epic Von Ewiger Liebe (For Eternal Love), Es Hing der Reif (The Hanging Frost), and many more. This session may open an entirely new world of musical emotion for you.
7. MAY 14 Concertos
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, op. 83
I jokingly call this magnificent second piano concerto Brahms’ Cello Concerto because the beauty of the cello solo in the slow movement briefly makes us forget about the piano entirely! This concerto is really a symphony with piano, with a complete four movement conception. As we’ve heard in his chamber music, Brahms had unlimited imagination and inspiration integrating the piano with other instruments.
8. MAY 21 Late Piano Intermezzi—op. 116, 117, 118, 119
In his last years, Brahms left us not with epic proclamations like Haydn or Handel with their oratorios, but instead crafted the most sublime miniatures. His piano intermezzi each create a complete musical universe in a handful of pages. They possess an intimacy and depth completely unique in the piano repertoire.