Performing Brahms

A great deal of evidence survives about how Brahms and his contemporaries performed his music. But much of this evidence - found in letters, autograph scores, treatises, publications, recordings, and more - has been hard to access, both for musicians and for scholars. This book brings the most important evidence together into one volume. It also includes discussions by leading Brahms scholars of the many issues raised by the evidence. The period spanned by the life of Brahms and the following generation saw a crucial transition in performance style. As a result, modern performance practices differ significantly from those of Brahms's time. By exploring the musical styles and habits of Brahms's era, this book will help musicians and scholars understand Brahms's music better and bring fresh ideas to present-day performance. The value of the book is greatly enhanced by the accompanying CD of historic recordings - including a performance by Brahms himself. Review: '... this is a fascinating book.' Early Music Table of Contents: Introduction; 1. How different was Brahms's playing style from our own? Bernard D. Sherman; 2. Performing Brahms's music: clues from his letters Styra Avins; 3. Joachim's violin playing and the performance of Brahms's string music Clive Brown; 4. Metronome marks and timings Bernard D. Sherman; 5. Performance issues in A German Requiem Michael Musgrave with Appendix: 'Ein deutsches Requiem', Siegfried Ochs, introduced and translated by Michael Musgrave; 6. Fanny Davies and Brahms's late chamber music George S. Bozarth; 7. Flexible tempo and nuancing in orchestral music: Understanding Brahms's view of interpretation in his Second Piano Concerto and Fourth Symphony Robert Pascall and Philip Weller; 8. Brahms in the Meiningen Tradition: His Symphonies and Haydn Variations in the Markings by Fritz Steinbach Edited by Walter Blume, Excerpt: The First Symphony Walter Frisch (translation and introduction); 9. In search of Brahms's First Symphony: Steinbach, the Meiningen tradition and the recordings of Hermann Abendroth Walter Frisch; 10. Early trends in the recorded performance of Brahms's music Michael Musgrave; 11. Performing Brahms in the Style Hongrois Jonathan Bellman; 12. Brahms's musical world: balancing the evidence Robert Philip; Appendix: Introduction to supplementary CD and list of contents; Discography. Author Biography: Michael Musgrave is Emeritus Professor of Music at Goldsmiths' College, University of London but lives in New York. He is author of The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace, The Music of Brahms, Brahms: A German Requiem and the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Brahms. Bernard D. Sherman is the author of Inside Early Music (1997) and the essay 'Authenticity in Music' in The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (1998). He contributes regularly to The New York Times, and his work has appeared in Early Music, Historical Performance, The American Brahms Society Newsletter, and many other publications.