Bob Draper, in the context of the merits of Brahms's first piano concerto:

>I think too much time is spent by some people on this list analysing the
>construction of a piece and not enough experiencing the message conveyed.

Although your post was primarily directed at Mikael Rasmusson, it included
a quote from me concerning the 'construction' of B1, so I don't know
whether the criticism was supposed to go in my direction or not.  If so, I
have to exculpate myself:  I agree wholeheartedly with regard to B1 that

>This is music about emotion, about feeling the struggles of life which are
>so apparent when one is young.

- and that these emotions are conveyed in a very powerful way.  My
comments were made specifically in the context of the merits of Brahms's
orchestration.  Indeed, if I think more about the matter, while I do think
that the orchestration and piano writing in B1 is not always very polished
or 'beautiful', it may very well be that the piece might have had less 'raw
impact' if there had been more surface polish.  There is a very impressive
windswept, 'nordic' quality to the sound.  The second concerto is in many
ways more subtly and successfully worked out than the first, it is clearly
a 'better' work, but after much listening I am no longer at all sure
whether the first is not in fact 'greater'.  Certainly, in the second
concerto, you don't get the same dramatic arc of struggle and release,
that sense of an emotional journey that is so powerfully apparent in no.
1.  In your words, it doesn't convey as convincing a 'message'.

Felix Delbruck
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