Celebrating Brahms – a tormented genius

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

A “very conflicted man who had a difficult relationship with women”, but who was “a moving and compassionate composer with a great sense of structure” will be the focus of Music for Galway’s 2016-17 programme, Aimez-vous Brahms?, which kicks off on September 26.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) appeals to Music for Galway’s Artistic Director Finghin Collins because of the German composer’s majestic music and his complex personality.

“I choose him not because he is my favourite composer – it’s hard to say you have a favourite composer – but he’s grown on me over the years as I’ve got to know his musical repertoire,” says pianist Finghin. “It’s as much his music without piano – he wrote work for strings and clarinet too, which was unusual at the time.”

Brahms’s work is difficult to play but not difficult to listen to, he says.

“It’s very intense and gets straight into you – it’s intensely beautiful and makes you feel alive.”

Brahms was noted for his expansive piano concertos and wasn’t afraid to compose long movements with tight structures, building to amazing high points and them down again, explains Finghin. And his talents were diverse.

“His use of instruments and nobility of themes was remarkable.”

This “difficult and complex character” and his music will be the subject of two free talks during the Music for Galway season. The first will be on September 28 with a lunchtime discussion entitled Brahms the Man, while the second, on May 18, will discuss Brahms in Love.

These will be given by teacher and musicologist Gerry Murphy and will explore Brahms’ complicated relationship with women – which may be due to the fact that his father made him play piano in the brothels of Hamburg as a child, observes Finghin.

Brahms fell in love very deeply at least once, but never married. And he had a long and complex relationship with fellow composers Robert and Clara Schumann.

The relationship with Clara, one of the most talented pianists ever, continued long after Robert’s death. Correspondence between them will form the basis of a performance, Beloved Clara, which will take place at the Aula Maxima, NUIG on November 24. Sponsored by Tigh Neachtain, it will feature pianist Lucy Parham and actors Derbhle Crotty and Henry Goodman.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.