Johannes Brahms : NPR

NPR Music's Top 10 Classical Albums Of 2017

Víkingur Ólafsson's album was a fitting tribute to the 80th birthday of composer Philip Glass. Ari Magg/Deutsche Grammophon hide caption

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Ari Magg/Deutsche Grammophon

Deceptive Cadence

NPR Music's Top 10 Classical Albums Of 2017

December 19, 2017 • From tributes to Philip Glass and French opera to the roaring silences of Morton Feldman and virtuosic choral singing, 2017 proved to be another vibrant year in classical music.

Review

Music

Brazilian Pianist Nelson Freire Brings An Uncannily Delicate Touch To 'Brahms'

Fresh Air

November 6, 2017 • Freire plays tribute to the noted German composer on his new album. Music critic Lloyd Schwartz doesn't always love Brahms, but he loves this recording.

Brazilian Pianist Nelson Freire Brings An Uncannily Delicate Touch To 'Brahms'

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Arcadi Volodos Explores The Wistful Side Of Brahms

Arcadi Volodos devotes his new album to the music of Brahms. Marco Borggreve/Sony Classical hide caption

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Marco Borggreve/Sony Classical

Review

Deceptive Cadence

Arcadi Volodos Explores The Wistful Side Of Brahms

June 16, 2017 • The Russian pianist, known for his fiery technique, scales back to let his instrument sing sweetly in an autumnal miniature from late in the career of Johannes Brahms.

Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk: Tiny Desk Concert

Tiny Desk Concert with Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk. Bob Boilen/NPR hide caption

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Bob Boilen/NPR

Tiny Desk

Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk: Tiny Desk Concert

September 30, 2016 • Two A-list classical artists work up a sweat as they revel in the tender and turbulent music of Brahms and Schumann.

Alessio Bax with his daughter at the Tiny Desk. Brandon Chew/NPR hide caption

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Brandon Chew/NPR

Tiny Desk

Alessio Bax: Tiny Desk Concert

June 17, 2016 • In time for Father's Day, watch the celebrated pianist play lullabies by Bach and Brahms for his 22-month-old daughter, who nearly steals the show.

Fiddle In A Pickle: Jonathan Carney's Concertmaster Quiz

Jonathan Carney is the concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. James Bartolomeo/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra hide caption

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James Bartolomeo/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Deceptive Cadence

Fiddle In A Pickle: Jonathan Carney's Concertmaster Quiz

April 8, 2014 • What is a concertmaster? The orchestra's lead violinist who plays all those tricky solos. Test your knowledge of fiddling against Jonathan Carney, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony.

Music We Love Now: New Albums Of Bach, Beethoven And Brahms

Lisa Batiashvili plays the Stradivarius used to help birth Brahms' great Violin Concerto in D. Anja Frers/DG hide caption

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Anja Frers/DG

WGBH Radio

December 18, 2009 • When classical musicians literally play to their own strengths, magic can happen. Hear today's top classical musicians revisit the music they know and love best in recordings chosen by Boston's WGBH.

First Listen

First Listen: Brahms In Berlin, The Symphonies

American Public Media

September 29, 2009 • The four symphonies by Brahms are like four distinct personalities, ranging from the dark and dramatic to the sunny and lyrical. The great Berlin Philharmonic has this music in its blood. Hear the entire new three-disc set, with conductor Simon Rattle, for the week leading up to its Oct. 6 release.

Classics in Concert

Brahms' French Horn Of Plenty, In Concert

91.7 WVXU

April 23, 2009 • The mystery of which type of French horn Brahms intended for his lyrical Horn Trio may never be solved. But there's no denying that Brahms came up with some of the very best music for the horn, with or without valves, in the history of the instrument.

Hear Brahms' Horn Trio In Concert

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Music Interviews

Insults And Praise On The Classical Campaign

October 23, 2008 • Commentator Miles Hoffman offers a classical variation on a political theme: insults and endorsements among the great composers. Invectives hurled at their colleagues and competitors were effective means of shaping public opinion. Whether positive, negative or the all-too-common flip-flop, classical-music criticism, just like political commentary, is little more than biased opinion in time.

Insults And Praise On The Classical Campaign

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WNYC Radio

March 25, 2008 • The first time Arturo Toscanini conducted an orchestra, he was 19, and the year was 1886. The last time he conducted a live performance came 68 years later, in 1954. Sara Fishko tries to weave through the immense web of musical history he left behind.

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November 7, 2007 • NPR's Nina Totenberg describes recent experiences that made her aware of living history. The first was the unveiling of a federal judge's portrait. The second was program notes at a symphony concert that mentioned her father, Roman Totenberg.

Essay: Reflecting on Living History

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July 14, 2007 • When Marin Alsop heard a piece by Brahms as a youngster, she discovered the transforming power of music. Now the celebrated conductor has recorded each of Brahms' four symphonies and thinks of them as a symphonic solar system filled with tenderness, humor and struggle.

Shadow Classics

Bringing Brahms Alive with Little Fanfare

March 21, 2007 • With virtually any mainstay of the classical repertoire, like Brahms' masterful violin sonatas, it's possible to find sparkling performances from lesser-known but artistically mighty interpreters. This recording, by Czech violinist Josef Suk and American pianist Julius Katchen, is an excellent example.

Song Of The Day

The Art of the German Art-Song

January 30, 2007 • With contemporary singers paying less attention to Brahms, it's a pleasure to turn the clock back to the 1960s to hear mezzo-soprano Janet Baker sing an album of his songs. Baker has a voice of deep purple velvet, as well as intelligence and a sense of detail that can make each song seem like a miniature opera.

Shadow Classics

The 'Overlooked 11' of 2006

December 20, 2006 • Given the proliferation of year-end Top 10 lists, it seems natural that Shadow Classics — which gives shelter to under-appreciated music — would feature its own list of 2006 recordings likely to become Shadow Classics down the line. Don't let these gems go unnoticed.

Best CDs of 2006

John Richards' Top 10 CDs of 2006

December 5, 2006 • John Richards, morning DJ for NPR station KEXP in Seattle, shares his picks for the year's best albums. Richards recently appeared as a guest on NPR's live online, call-in edition of All Songs Considered to help count down listener picks for the top ten CDs of 2006.

Music Interviews

Pianist's Passions Span Music, America and Wolves

October 13, 2006 • French-born Helene Grimaud is busy this season. She has a new CD, Reflection, and her autobiography, Wild Harmonies, has been published in English. The works explore the pianist's different loves, in both her musical and personal life.

Pianist's Passions Span Music, America and Wolves

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Music

Concert Hall Curveballs: Bernstein and Gould

September 18, 2006 • Concert Hall Curveballs are those unexpected things that happen in the concert hall. The things they edit out of a CD. With some 1,500 live performances a year, Performance Today runs into a lot of these funny situations, but here's one that really takes the cake.

Concert Hall Curveballs: Bernstein and Gould

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