Johannes Brahms - Complete Works (Op. 1-122 + WoOs + Appendix) in One Spotify Playlist

Brahms was secretive and a perfectionist. He seldom allowed more than one version of his works to exist, kept no drafts and burned most works that seemed unsatisfactory to him (and all letters from Clara Schumann). To honor his own wishes, I put works without opus number (WoW 1 - 38 and some works labeled as Anh.) after Opus 1 - 122, instead of sorting everything chronologically, like I normally do.

Besides the 46-disk Brahms Edition (DG), there's numerous excellent Brahms recordings available on Spotify. An overview of the playlist:

Piano works: Sviatoslav Richter, Murray Perahia, Emil Gilels, Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Radu Lupu, Julius Katchen, Yuja Wang, Stephen Kovacevich, Clifford Curzon (Concerto No. 1), Claudio Arrau (Concerto No. 2), Olga Kern (her Variations is beautiful), and more. For the Haydn Variations, you can hear Solti and Perahia on two pianos.

Orchestral and choral works: Otto Klemperer (Walter's recording of Ein deutsches Requiem is also great but it's in mono; Klemperer's recording was made around the same time he recorded the legendary St. Matthew Passion, with the same artists), John Eliot Gardiner (new recordings on SDG), Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle, Carlos Kleiber, Bernard Haitink (new recordings with LSO), Claudio Abbado, Adrian Boult, Sir John Barbirolli, and more. It is worth noting that, the conductor of Serenade No.1, Robin Ticciati, was 27-year-old when he made the recording, the same age as when Brahms completed the piece.

Chamber music: too many to mention. The two clarinet sonata recordings from Harmonia Mundi and Delos are celestial. On Spotify's desktop app, you can use Ctrl + F to bring out the filter bar, and type in clarinet to find the recordings quickly.

Vocalists: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jessye Norman, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Quasthoff, Ann Murray, Andreas Schmidt and more.

This playlist is compiled after this list of compositions. Besides all WoOs, I added a few works from the appendix (mostly arrangements of other composers' works; complete arrangements for piano-four hand will be available as another playlist), and

• Original 1853 version of Piano Trio op. 8
• Sinfonia in B, an orchestration of the above work
• Alternative ending for Schicksalslied, Op. 54
• Piano Trio No.4
• Souvenir de la Russie (published before 1852 as op.151 under the pseudonym G.W. Marks)

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Johannes Brahms - Complete Works (Op. 1-122 + WoOs + Appendix) (1039 tracks, total time: 58 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.  AllMusic provides useful introductory articles to most works. In the Composers as Pianists playlist, you can hear the 1889 cylinder recording of Brahms performance of a segment of his First Hungarian Dance.

Also check out Naxos Educationa for a 4-disk audiobook on Brahms's Life & Works and 2-disk analysis of his 2nd Piano Concerto.

A Sampler of Brahms's Solo Piano Music

"For me, the slow movement is the most beautiful love music after Tristan, and the most erotic." Claudio Arrau on Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3.

I am not sure if Arrau temporarily lost his mind to the beauty of that slow movement, because actually it was written 12 years before Tristan. Anyway here is another playlist to throw off the Friday fever. Lately I grew a fondness for 20-track playlists, which you can listen through in one sitting, and get a good overview on one theme or genre, so you can investigate further by yourself. And this Brahms playlist is my first try that I want to share. Brahms is by no means my favorite composer, but just as Britten said that he played through all of Brahms' music every year just to see if he still disliked it as much, I constantly find myself listening to Brahms. Even when my heart still resents the marble coldness on its surface sometime, I have come to realize that he is perhaps very underrated as a composer for solo piano. The Op.10 Ballades, which Brahms wrote before the age of 22, are up there with the masterpieces of Chopin. And Op.116-119 as a whole is in the same league with Beethoven's last three piano sonatas.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Brahms Solo Piano Music (20 tracks, total time: 1 hour). It features 20 pianists from Michelangeli to Yuja Wang playing 19 pieces. The only duplication being the C-sharp Minor Intermezzi, both performance from Gould and Pogorelich are included. The bookends of the playlist are a enchantingly beautiful A minor waltz and the last of Paganini Variation Book I. I know the four-hand waltz is not strictly solo piano music but I like the current shape of this playlist, hope you enjoy it too. Have a nice weekend.

Brahms: WoOs, Transcriptions and Four-Hand Piano Arrangements

Brahms transcribed most of his orchestral and chamber music into four-hand piano arrangements, a form in which most people got to hear and play those music during Brahms' lifetime. It is very interesting, and often revealing, to hear his texturally dense orchestral works in the striped down piano version, The first piano was actually planned as a sonata for pianos. No.15 of the Op. 39 Waltzes for piano four-hand is one of the most lovely tunes that Brahms, or any composer ever written. There are many gems in the WoOs and transcriptions in other forms too. Check out the previous playlists of Brahms' works with opus numbers if you missed them.

Here's the Spotify playlist:

Brahms: WoOs and Transcriptions (228 tracks, 12 hours)

Brahms: Four-Hand Piano Music (167 tracks, 13 hours)

Ladies and Gentleman, Johannes Brahms

Last month I did a playlist of Brahms' complete works with opus number, and I said: "Deutsche Grammophon's Complete Edition of Brahms is still available in Amazon, 100 USD for 46 CDs, great bargain. Grab this beautiful box-set before Spotify makes it streamable;)"

Well, now, it IS on Spotify.

Spotify Link:Brahms: Complete Edition (772 tracks, 2.2 days.)

It's still worth to browse my Brahms playlist for different interpretation:)

The Spotify Brahms Playlist Part 4, Op. 91-122

This is the Spotify Playlist: Johannes Brahms: Op. 91-122

Alex Ross just revealed the dazzling cover and table of content of his new book, Listen To This. The last chapter is called: Blessed Are the Sad: Late Brahms. Check out the Spotify Playlist for his last book, The Rest Is Noise here.

An excellent article on Brahms' last songs. Stay tuned for part 5, yes we still have some unfinished Brahms business!

Below is the Counter Currents chapter from Paul Henry Lang's Music in Western Civilization, one of the best books I've read on classical music.

The Spotify Brahms Playlist Part 3, Op. 61-90

During this period Brahms composed three great symphonies, at that time the best of this genre since Beethoven's 9th, and arguably the greatest violin concerto ever.

I cannot resist to put multiple recordings of these works into this playlist. For the violin concerto, besides the supreme performance from Jascha Heifetz, I also added in the recording of the prominent Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov, accomplished by Daniel Barenboim and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Yehudi Menuhin's recording with Wilhelm Furtwängler. Barenboim has always been an admirer of Furtwängler, the length of each movements in the last two recordings are almost identical. It's the same for the symphonies so I included both.

Some might say that Brahms's Op.83 is the grandest piano concerto. Well, think about Mozart's 21st, K467, and Beethoven's 4th. Do they even belong to the same type of music? In Schiff's lectures on the Beethoven sonatas, I heard him saying:"Beethoven goes to heaven, but Mozart comes from heaven." Where does Brahms belong to? I'm not sure. I think this kind of explains why I am seldom fully convinced by him. Brahms seemed always busy perfecting the craft of his art, for the sake of perfection, and to honour the art that he loved. But he is also a far cry from Oscar Wilde, or the romantics like Chopin and Schumann. Beethoven comes down, grabs you shoulders and shouts:"I'm going to tell you something VERY important." And most of the time it really is. Mozart just reveals the heavenly grace from where he comes from so naturally that you don't even wonder why we are privileged to hear his music on earth. But Brahms? Sometime I feel that Brahms is trying to say through his musc:"Listen, here I am, the great composer". Luckily his genius always keeps this hypothetical intention from doing any harm to his music, and his endless effort to hide from egotism indeed made his best works timeless, well, at least till this day.

Sorry, rant over:-)

Here's the Spotify playlist: Johannes Brahms: Op. 61-90

Stay tuned for part 4, and check out how the oboist steals the thunder from the real soloist at the beginning of the adagio:)

All Flesh Is Grass: The Spotify Brahms Playlist Part 2

Johannes Brahms: Op. 31-60(Spotify Playlist link).

English text for Op. 45, Ein Deutsches Requiem – A German Requiem:

I. Chorus

Blessed are they that mourn:
for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
They that go forth and weep,
bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing their sheaves with them. Psalm 126:5-6

II. Chorus

For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man
as the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower thereof falleth away. I Peter 1:24

Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth,
and has long patience for it,
until he receive the morning and evening rain.
Be patient therefore. James 5:7

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. I Peter 1:25

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy
upon their heads:
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10

III. Baritone & Chorus

Lord, make me to know
mine end,
and the measure of my days, what it is:
that I may know how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days
as an handbreadth;
and mine age is as nothing before thee.

Verily every man at his best state
is altogether vanity.
Surely every man walks in a vain show:
surely they are disquieted in vain:
he heaps up riches, and knows not
who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for?

My hope is in thee. Psalm 39:5-8

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God
and there shall no torment touch them. Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

IV. Chorus

How lovely are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yea, even faints
for the courts of the Lord:
my heart and my flesh cries out
for the living God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
they will always be praising thee. Psalm 84:1,2,4

V. Soprano & Chorus

And ye now therefore have sorrow:
but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you. John 16:22

Behold with your eyes, how that I have
but little labour,
and have gotten unto me much rest. Sirach 51:35

As one whom his mother comforts,
so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

VI. Baritone & Chorus

For here have we no continuing city,
but we seek one to come. Hebrews 13:14

Behold, I show you a mystery:
we shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? I Corinthians 15:51-55

Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honour and power:
for thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are
and were created. Revelation 4:11

VII. Chorus

Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, from henceforth.
Yea, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13

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Deutsche Grammophon's Complete Edition of Brahms is still available in Amazon, 100 USD for 46 CDs, great bargain. Grab this beautiful box-set before Spotify makes it streamable;)

And thanks to Afront for nominating this blog in the Spotify Community Site Awards 2010, go vote for your favourite sites if you appreciate what Spotify and all those people who help to build this community are doing to spread the joy of music. Thanks.

Get the playlist at the beginning of this post, and stay tuned for part 3, our good old Johannes was finally going to write symphonies:)

Johannes Brahms: Complete Works With Opus Numbers on Spotify Part 1

Johannes Brahms's letter to Clara Schumann: "Art is a republic. You should take that as a motto. You are far too aristocratic. . . . Do not place one artist in a higher rank and expect the others to regard him as their superior, as dictator. His gifts will make him a beloved and respected citizen of this republic, but will not make him consul or emperor."

Clara Schumann's reply: "It is true that I am often greatly struck by the richness of your genius, that you always seem to me one on whom heaven has poured out its best gifts, that I love and honor you for the sake of many glorious works. All this has fastened its roots deep down in my heart, so, dearest Johannes, do not trouble to kill it all by your cold philosophizing."

Robert Schumann's last words to Clara: "My... I know..." He was trying to say: "My Clara, I know you." He couldn't speak Clara's name since a suicide attempt two years before his death in an asylum, Clara and Brahms was with him during his final days.

I read some 200 pages of Jan Swafford's fascinating biography of Brahms while travelling during the holidays. Before this I never looked closely into the heartbreaking story of Brahms' relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann. It's such a sad thing to see beauty decay. It's sadder still, to see Brahms developed into a mature artist at the same time when Schumann's inspiration and health torn away. Brahms denied both Robert's prediction and Clara's love, meanwhile all his life he promoted Schumann's works and dedicated his chief muse Clara many masterpieces. What a total, um, what's the word, well, dude.

To coordinate with the reading, I'm in the process of making a chronicle playlist of Brahms' works. Here's part 1: Johannes Brahms: Op. 1-30

I included both the original 1854 version of the Piano Trio No.1, and the 1891 revised version. For the piano music, beside the modern recordings I also added in some historical recordings from Backhaus and Kempff, both were born while Brahms was alive and noted for their Brahms interpretation.

The Op. 9 Schumann Variations might be Brahms' most personal composition. In the tenth variation he used a Clara theme, which Schumann himself also used in his Impromptu. Brahms sent it to Schumann in the clinic. Schumann loved the music but couldn't remember that theme.

In the Swan Songs playlist there's Schumann's last composition, a set of variations for piano put down days before his collapse. Brahms wrote a subtle set of new variations on Schumann's theme for piano four-hand.

One last word for the String Sextet No.1 Op. 18, if I was going to make a "I've known Four Seasons, For Elise and Eine kleine Nachtmusik etc. Now what?" playlist, I'd definetely put the 2nd movement, the Andante in it.

Happy listening, and please stay tuned for part 2.