Classical Music: Hand in Glove

Leon Botstein explores Brahms’s relationship to his artist friends.

Russell Platt

Amid the cultural turmoil of latenineteenth- century Europe—driven, most powerfully, by the revolutionary operas of Richard Wagner—Johannes Brahms continued to explore the earlynineteenth- century musical genres perfected by Beethoven: the symphony, the sonata, and the concerto, forms in which the composer used craftsmanship to transform pure emotion into musical structure. Brahms did keep up with the trends of his time, of course, if only to be familiar with the kinds of music he positioned his own works against. But his keen interest inncerto, forms in which the composer used craftsmanship to transform pure emotion into musical structure. Brahms did keep up with the trends of his time, of course, if only to be familiar with the kinds of music he positioned his own works against. But his keen interest in…

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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 30, 2017

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