Brahms Variations from String Sextet op. 18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEZ9CPxICos&fmt=18
(MP3 attached)

This is Brahms' own transcription of the 2nd movement. He gave it as a birthday present to Clara Schumann on September 13, 1860. Later, this transcription became one of his favorite pieces to play both in public and private concerts.


Brahms - Piano transcription of Op. 18, II: Andante ma moderato

 

Hi Tobias,

I am a great aficionado of this set and it is in my to-do list (to be honest, I started studying it some months ago, but then gave up, because I felt I was not ready). You did a great job. The clinkers here and there don't disturb, plus you have some weeks to improve the weaker passages. I don't have any major suggestions, but a couple of ideas you may feel like working on. In Var I, first part, what about putting in evidence the anacrusis in the thematic octave jumps? in Var IV, you could get a louder sound (dynamic is forte throughout) by playing with a full tone the upper voice (show off how much the Thalberg you did is useful :lol: ); also, put extra care in pedalling the bass keys you cannot keep down (I think this is especially important in the Coda). Tomorrow I'll try to listen to your other submissions.

 

Dear Francois, dear Alfonso,

wow, it is for comments like these why I love our audition room! Thank for for your careful listening (and please: if you listen to my other two contributions, don't listen so closely, or your ears will fall off in horror )

Francois, my sheet music is in my practice room so I cannot comment because I don't know the bar numbers by heart, but I will make careful notes of your suggestions and try them out tomorrow! I'm delighted to hear that your wife also played these variations; I thought they were much neglected (though I have a good recording by Alfred Brendel, and one by Ian Hobson who has recorded the complete Brahms variations).

Alfonso, I'm happy that you like this set, too, and that you plan to study it. Based on the recordings I heard from you, I am absolutely sure that you are ready for it!

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by this suggestion?

Actually, my teacher constantly reminds me to play the upper voice in a more pronounced way, and to de-emphasize the moving middle voices (they should be clearly heard but not mix up with the upper voice). However, I want to decrease the dynamic a bit here (and then even more in Var V, and in the recapitulation of the theme). The reason is the the first three variations are quite loud and heavy and there is a danger that the whole piece would sound too aggressive/forceful. It is a fine balance, however. Ideally (IMO), the sound would be full, but not too loud.

 

hi, Tobias!

I love this piece (which was clearly inspired in Bach's Chaconne, in my opinion). It's good. I have only two things to comment on:

1) I think the tempo should be the same, including the first variations. You play them slower and speed up a little after each variation.

2) the variation at 2'15 is a little strange. I can't say exactly what it is.


by the way, you play beautifully from 6'48 to the end.

 

I listened to this a couple of days ago and much enjoyed it. Good playing in sumptuous sound. Whatever little slips there are do not much distract, except for one or two. One thing you could do is make the climaxes a bit more expansive. A slightly more flexible tempo would also be nice to avoid the suggestion of chugging on (not that you do that of course :wink: ).
It is up on the site.

 

It's interesting to see how Brahms modified the original texture and the dialogue among the strings to fit his intended piano writing (and, by the way, Brahms piano writing often resembles that one of a chamber ensemble). If you look at the sextett score you can see how important is the anacrusis in this variation and how the jumps begin in the bass and progressively go up. Melodically and rhytmically those jumps are the main feature of this variation and IMO should stick out a bit more.

In the attachment the piano score with indicated the jumps.

 

Thanks felipe and Chris!

And, wow, Alf!! I was not at all aware of this. I feel a bit ashamed to never have looked into the original score, despite that "in theory" I would always say one should never play a transcription without having scrutinized the original source material. Thanks so much for this insight, and after your explanation I fully agree it should stand out a bit more! This may be a surprise to my teacher as well (I'll mention of course that this good insight was from a PS fellow!! )

 

probably this is what I found strange at 2'15: this is the beginning of the second section of this variation. anyway... I couldn't realize it was the anacrusis. It just sounded to me different from my "memory" of this piece.

 

Admittedly, Brahms' piano version can stand by itself, I mean, you can conceive its interpretation by its own pianistic terms, without even knowing the original sextett (both the versions are after all transcriptions of an intrinsic musical concept - as Busoni would have put it). I don't know Hobson's interpretation, I have Brendel, Biret and Volodos - the latter is by far the best of the batch, IMO.

 

Oh, I didn't know Biret and Volodos recorded it as well; thanks for mentioning it!

 

I'll put Volodos' on my YT channel tonight (it's an audience recording of some years ago).

 

Many thanks, Alfonso, that's very kind! I look forward very much to listening to it!