Ian Crisp wrote:

>Nor do I, and I've been trying - I have, really - ever since we last had a
>not-getting-on-with-Brahms thread over a year ago.  Still can't get there.
>I have no trouble with the concerti, the German Requiem, most of the
>chamber music, lots of other things - but I've just never been able to get
>the symphonies to work for me.  And what's worst is that I can't work out
>why not.

The Mighty Four are one of those areas of the repetoire where I can easily
burn out.  The late, more-or-less lamented Philadelphia FM station WFLN
used to play them every night, I swear, in rotation: 1, 2, 3, 4 and back
to 1 again.  The only think they loved more was written-by-the-yard,
sewing-machine-style Baroque in the morning.

Under those conditions, I came to hate the Brahms symphonies after a while.
I find that I can only appreciate them when I approach them very gingerly,
on rare occasions. To me, they are very hard to develop the kind of warm,
personal relationship with that I have with, say, the LvB 9, and of course
Mahler. They are more like the official-art kind of statues you see in the
park -- General So-and-so on a horse -- than a Brancusi, or even a Moore.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]