Composer of the Week: Brahms

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

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An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Homes from Home

Homes from Home

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Homes from Home

Kate Molleson joins Brahms at some of his most beloved and inspiring holidays spots.

Kate Molleson explores the life and relationships of Johannes Brahms through the keyhole of the places he called home. Today, we follow Brahms on his most inspiring holidays.

Kate Molleson joins Brahms at some of his most beloved and inspiring holidays spots.

Johannes Brahms, the bearded and magisterial Romantic composer, could certainly do grandeur when required. But really, he was more interested in what music meant in ordinary life - how it can whisper, joke and console. He was a man who tried to find a place to belong all his life, wrote for the people closest to him, and that fondness is writ large in his music. All this week, Kate Molleson focuses on Brahms at home, revealing the subtle sides of this sometimes brawny composer – the tender heart behind the famous beard - through the music he wrote for himself and his friends to play. 

Today, we join Brahms on holiday. Though he loved Vienna, he also loved getting away from the city, ideally where he could see woods and climb mountains. At Ischl in Austria, and Thun in Switzerland, we hear about his vacation routines, and how he injected this fresh air into his music, composing much of his best chamber music there.

Wiegenlied, Op 49 No 4 
Mischa Maisky, cello 
Pavel Gililov, piano 

Romance in F major, Op 118 No 5 
Murray Perahia, piano

String Quintet in F  (1st movement)
Gérard Caussé, viola 
Hagen Quartet

Wie Melodien zieht es mir; Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer 
Jessye Norman, soprano 
Daniel Barenboim, piano

Violin Sonata in A major (1st movement)
Alina Ibragimova, violin 
Cedric Tiberghien, piano

Clarinet Quintet (1st movement)
Jerusalem Quartet 
Sharon Hagen, clarinet

Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op 52: Ein kleiner hübscher Vogel 
Edith Mathis, soprano
Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo
Peter Schreier, tenor 
Dieter Fischer-Dieskau ,baritone 
Karl Engel, piano


Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West

Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Kate Molleson focuses on the music Brahms wrote for himself and his friends to play.

Kate Molleson focuses on Brahms at home, revealing the subtle sides of this sometimes brawny composer through the music he wrote for himself and his friends to play.

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