Williams Featured in NY Times Article about the Cello

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Today the NY Times has published an article with recommendations from notable people meant to help the listener fall in love with the sound of the cello.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/arts/music/five-minutes-classical-music-cello.html

 

It's just a short blurb, but very nice to read Williams talking about music he loves.  It feels very "on brand" for him to pick a Brahms piece 

 

Quote

John Williams, composer

 

The opening eight bars of the Andante of Brahms’s B-flat Piano Concerto shine with a luster that places them high among the many melodic masterpieces this composer has given us. With a range of slightly over an octave, the home key of B flat brings a glowing warmth after the rousing Appassionato in D minor.

 

I don’t know why Brahms chose the cello to present this arioso. However, with its vocal characteristics and breathtaking control, always capable of producing the suggestion of portamento, it’s hard to imagine any other instrument for this role. The cello and this tune seem destined to come together, and we are once again in great debt to Herr Brahms.

 

[crumbs 14,306]

Is this the piece he's referring to?

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Yes.

 

Like a lot of Brahms, it's not especially to my taste.  Instead of achingly beautiful, it just sounds kinda staid to my ears.  But that's ok, I enjoy reading Williams on music he loves even when I don't necessarily love it too!

[Bayesian 1,363]

Perhaps not worth making a big deal out of, but I enjoyed how the NYT put JW second on the list of names providing their answers in the headline (after Yo-Yo Ma, who is the only expected choice for the first slot) and I liked that they refer to JW as "composer," not "film composer."

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

He's a film composer as well?

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[King Mark 3,631]

He conducted the Vienna orchestra so he's officially a composer

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

I only know him as a guitarist.

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Brahms. Of course.

 

48 minutes ago, King Mark said:

He conducted the Vienna orchestra so he's officially a composer

 

Not that many composers have conducted the Philharmoniker.

 

10 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

Well, what the Austrian TV chick said:

"What is really special about this John Williams concert, are the Wiener Philharmoniker. Their magic, their perfection [yeah, right] fit the music of John Williams perfectly, and because of that they ennoble his popular miniature works".

 

 

She didn't say "Werkchen" (the diminuitive, which you indicated with "miniature"). She said "Werke" (works, no diminuitive), just with an accent that makes the "k" sound like "kch", thus "Werkche".

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

1 minute ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Not that many composers have conducted the Philharmoniker.

 

I guess most of them would have to be dead before the orchestra would even consider touching them.

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[SteveMc 2,674]

It is a lovely little Brahms segment.  Like most of Brahms's work it sounds polished to the point of lacking vibrancy, but I can hear how it's contours and delicacy might have influenced John a good deal.  Personally, I hear the opening of the Andante, especially the segment just before and after the piano comes in, reflected in the finale from The Book Thief.