Dreaming of Brahms

I have been joking with my friends about this dream I had about one of my favorite musicians of all time, Johannes Brahms.

For better or worse this was the older, bearded Brahms ... 

 

... not the young version that Howard, the guy I married, always says somewhat snarkily looks like Clint Eastwood. That is the Clint Eastwood Brahms at the top of this post. I used him as click bait.

Anyway, I approached this older, bearded Brahms, and I asked him, "Herr Doktor Brahms, do you like to go out and hear live music?"

Herr Doktor Brahms said ja, jawohl.

I said, "Because my friends and I, we like to go out and hear music. If this Covid craziness ever ends and we are allowed to go out and hear live music again, would you like to go with us?"

And he said he would!

So I was really happy about that.

Of course then I awoke, and ... no Johannes Brahms, no plans to go out with him to hear live music.

I consoled myself by finding on YouTube that wonderful little recording we have of Brahms speaking.

 

  

Then he plays the piano. But you know what, I have never really heard the piano part. I just keep rewinding the speaking part. 

One day maybe I will get to the piano. But meanwhile, I listened to Brahms speak a few times. He says something to the effect of this is Herr Doktor Brahms, Johannes Brahms. I used to think it was in English but it is not.

It is so cool, the things you can find on YouTube.

So cool!

8 reasons I want to see the Met's "Carmen"

I am thinking of going to the upcoming encore simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera's current "Carmen." My friend Meghan suggested it this morning and I said yes and later I was extra glad I did.

That was because driving around running errands, I caught the last act on the radio. It sounded great!

And now I am psyched. Here are a few reasons why.

1. As long as you get out of its way and do not screw anything up, "Carmen" will sound great. Georges Bizet wired it just right. You can pretty much go with confidence.

2. The last act is short but I love how right at the beginning of it, the music slams you into the heat of action. Listening to that bullfight music Bizet came up with, the music that you hear at the start of the overture, you can just visualize the excitement. I think in that respect it is just as good on the radio as it is if you are watching the opera. You just get this splendid spectacle in your head!

3. You also get this splendid spectacle in your head of Johannes Brahms watching "Carmen," which I understand he did over and over. I love watching an opera that Brahms loved to watch.

4. Roberto Alagna is singing Don Jose. It's a part he has sung forever and I would like to see him sing it.

5. Mantilla alert: On the radio hey were describing the singers as they took their bows. Carmen appeared wearing a black lace mantilla. At church I wear a black lace mantilla! That is my style.

6. Those great tunes. I personally love the Seguidilla, when Carmen starts singing about Lillas Pastia's inn and how they are going to go there.

That song is where the wheels come off!

The wheels sure come off in this Met production starring Alagna and Elina Garanca. Garanca is a live wire! I saw her singing Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier" and she was marvelous in that but this is like seeing a completely different person. She really becomes Carmen. She takes it to the wall!



This production has a different Carmen, Clementine Margain. She has a tough act to follow! She will have to take it to the wall too. She has no choice.

Which brings us to ....

8. The character of Carmen herself ... as the country song goes, I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Poor Michaela, singing to Don Jose about his mother, never stands a chance.

That is the moral of "Carmen" in case you were wondering. That is the takeaway. If you want to get the guy, do not sing to him about his mother.

Everything you need to learn in life, opera teaches you!

Thoughts for a hot night

Who can sleep on these still and torpid nights? Here is something to divert you.

Go and get a big wine or water goblet.

Fill it with ice cubes.

Then pour in white wine to cover. You will probably need about five tablespoons of white wine.

Next, sit down and click here.

It appears to be the complete correspondence between Johannes Brahms, pictured above, and his friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg ...

.... and her husband, the composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg. It is luxuriantly long and you may enjoy browsing it as you sip your icy little bit of white wine.

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg was a close friend of Brahms when he was older, which is why we used a picture up above of the old and bearded Brahms rather than the Clint Eastwood Brahms pictures ...

... we usually like printing.

I remember reading in Jan Swafford's book about Brahms, which I allude to quite a bit, that Elisabeth was effervescent and charming and she had a slight stoop which somehow rendered her even more charming. I hope I remember the part right about the stoop. I have two copies of that book and I cannot find either one, can you believe that?

The more you love a book the more likely you are to lose it or ruin it.

Another thing about Elisabeth von Herzogenberg: She kept a sharp and protective eye on Brahms' compositions and he took her opinion seriously. Which, I question why he did that. Elisabeth loved and championed the music of Heinrich von Herzogenberg, her husband ...

and, I mean, it is better than anything I have written, that is for sure, but much as I respect Heinrich von Herzogenberg (and love his look) his music is nothing next to Johannes Brahms. That makes me question her judgment.

One other thing about Elisabeth. I seem to remember although now I cannot check the book to make sure (But I think I remember it right):

I seem to recall that she got Brahms to destroy a song or two because she judged to be inferior the poets who had written the words.

Imagine.

As if every song Schubert wrote were written to a great poem. He wrote some of his best songs to very pedestrian poetry. So what?

So now we are missing these Brahms songs because their words were inferior.

Thanks a heap, Elisabeth von Herzogenberg!

Oh well.

Maybe I need another five tablespoons of white wine.

Or maybe I should just listen to this.

Sweet 'Song of Love'

Should anyone else feel like frittering away a Saturday morning, join me in continuing to enjoy "Song of Love." Come on, do it. It is a holiday weekend.

I love this movie!!

There is this scene up above with Brahms and Clara Schumann. They are at the premiere of his First Symphony, and then they take off to have fun. And then there is this scene when Brahms proposes to Clara.

It is such a sad scene! I am not giving anything away. We all know how this story comes out.

These are good actors. And the Brahms actor he has dark hair, but otherwise he looks like Brahms. His face, his hair. Who is this guy? I keep looking up his name and forgetting it. Let me look it up again. ... Robert Walker. Wow, he died young, just 31 years old, a few years after this movie. No wonder I had not heard of him.

"Clara, you are endlessly young. What does age matter when the years don't touch you?"

Meanwhile there is this strolling violinist playing that beautiful Brahms waltz. You hear this waltz all the time but there is such deep love in it, especially that middle part.



Then the violinist changes his tune. Here is where I love YouTube. I love the comments. Somebody writes about this video: "I bet poor Brahms wanted to strangle that violinist..." Hahahaaa.

An odd thing, I am reading up on this Robert Walker. I wanted to know why he died so young. He starred in Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train." I love old movies and have seen far more of them than the average person has, but I have big gaps in my knowledge, so I had not known that.

Walker was born in Utah and he was a devout Mormon. You do not hear of too many Mormon movie stars. His life seems to have been very unhappy. His parents divorced when he was little and then he was divorced from his first wife, Jennifer Jones, because she left him for David Selznick. I remember Leonard Pennario explaining that situation to me. He was friends with Jennifer Jones but he felt bad about the divorce because, he told me, she had two kids with her first husband. So this is the first husband, our Johannes Brahms in "Song of Love."

Speaking of this movie, Walker responded badly to the stresses in his life and and it seems he became an alcoholic with psychiatric disorders which is why he died so young.

Sounds a lot like Robert Schumann, you know?

Maybe he was miscast.

Anyway. Poor Brahms, poor Clara, poor Robert Schumann, poor Robert Walker. But a good movie all the same. So many roads to explore when it comes to "Song of Love." So many discussions! Also there is a lot of good piano in it which I understand was courtesy of Arthur Rubinstein.

The whole movie is up on YouTube in 10-minute segments.

Enjoy!