Brahms Intermezzo Op. 117, No. 2


The first pieces of classical music that I heard as a college freshman have really stuck with me. Be it Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy or, in this case, Brahms, I must have been super receptive to the music that was offered at the recitals at William & Mary. 

In this case it was, again, Kathy Geralds playing a late Brahms Intermezzo. Recently I read an essay about Brahms that suggested he wrote best for short formats such as the piano pieces from Op. 10 as a young man through Op. 119, which he composed in 1893, just a few years before his death. I am the last one to say anything derogatory about his longer works, some of which are on my all-time-favorite list. However, the short pieces have a certain poetic intensity to them - each in its own way - that draw you in and have you singing or moving with them after a minute. And yet they are not simple. I've performed a few of them and heard most of the others played live. 

The Op. 117, No. 2, is one which is particularly tricky, both harmonically and technically. It takes a master such as Grigory Sokolov, the greatest pianist I've ever heard, to bring out everything that the piece has to offer. Compare another recording of it, or listen to another great pianist playing another of Brahms's great short works and see if Brahms's magic doesn't work on you too. 

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