Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
From: Max Kalbeck, Johannes Brahms. Bd. 4,1 (1886-91) (Berlin: Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1914, 2nd ed.), 61-67. This is the handout for my talk, “The Problem of Genre and the Power of Narrative: the Case of the Double Concerto” for the conference “The Intellectual Worlds of Johannes Brahms,” UC Irvine, 1-3 February 2019. First Movement The plummeting … Read more
After Brahms’s Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op. 102 was premiered by Joseph Joachim and Robert Hausmann in 1887, other soloists slowly added it to their repertoire. The list is based on the BBC Proms database and various sources for German concerts. There are a surprisingly large number of female soloists and … Read more
Robert Hausmann’s Piano Trio with his Hochschule colleagues Heinrich Barth (piano) and Heinrich de Ahna (violin) began giving concerts in 1875 and started a subscription series in 1878. They lasted for thirty years, with only one change in personnel, when Emanuel Wirth took over after de Ahna died in 1892. In contrast to the Joachim Quartet … Read more
When Brahms composed his last orchestral work, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, he wrote the solo parts specifically for Hausmann and Joachim, which he sent to them before they first tried it out together. The October 18, 1887 premiere in Cologne was followed by performances in Wiesbaden on November 17th, Frankfurt … Read more
On the occasion of the London premiere of the Brahms Double Concerto, Op. 102 on February 14, 1888, The Times newspaper wrote: No one but Brahms among living masters could have written this work, which shows all the earnestness of purpose, all the freedom from mere clap-trap, to which this composer owes his leading position. … Read more
English music critics were mainly negative about Brahms until at least the 1880s. As far as I can surmise, the abiding strong preference for Mendelssohn was a precipitating factor, which made them see even Schumann as too romantic. Therefore it was not a good thing that Brahms was a protegé of Schumann. In 1871 a … Read more
Besides his performances with his colleagues de Ahna and Hausmann in a Piano Trio, Heinrich Barth (12.07.1847-23.12.1922) had a solo career, although he never became as famous as his students Wilhelm Kempff, Heinrich Neuhaus, or Arthur Rubinstein. Barth’s training included study with Liszt’s two best students, Hans von Bülow and Carl Tausig. He began at … Read more