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UPDATE (3/31/17): So how is everybody!

Yep, two years to the day since I posted an


update to the site, and I am genuinely sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.
In mid-2015 I did the guide for the Op. 51, No. 2 String Quartet, which was a
request from a donor. It’s been done since about June of that year. It’s also
been available and uploaded onto the site, but I never linked it from the front
page. That’s because I didn’t want to put it up without its companion quartet. So
I started to work on Op. 51, No. 1. It was around that time that life started to
catch up with me in a lot of ways. It suffices to say that a great many things
have happened during that time. All that time, however, I was slowly working on
Op. 51, No. 1, but it was taking a very long time. This may be the most complex
and intricate piece Brahms ever wrote, and it was surprisingly difficult to analyze
and construct the guide. Anyway, in the meantime, the site has moved to a new
Plesk server after GoDaddy retired the old Windows-based one. I was able to get a
free year on the new server, but as of June 2016, I was no longer grandfathered
into the free unlimited hosting. What that means is that I’m now paying for both
the domain and the hosting, and I had never paid for the actual hosting since I got
the domain in 2008. So I now have an extra real expense to actually keep the site
up and available. I hate to plead for donations after being absent for so long,
but I’ve been paying for hosting for almost a year without saying anything publicly
about it. I have found that I can’t guarantee new guides within a timely manner,
although I will still give priority to donor requests. I have to go back and see
what previous donors have said they want. And yes, the Op. 84 guide needs to be
dealt with, along with all the IMSLP links from that opus on. Also in this time
frame, Emily Ezust’s Lied and Art Song Text Page has migrated from recmusic.org to
a new server. Fortunately, all those links are not dead--they just lead to
redirects, and everything seems to land on the right page. Still, it’s another
time-consuming task that I should undertake to make the text links more clean. The
March 2015 update below promised less gap time between postings. That was
obviously a promise I couldn’t keep, and I won’t make it again. But I am hopeful
that with the very difficult guide for Op. 51, No. 1 completed, I can move on to
some works that are a little less challenging. I am committed to finish the
project, no matter how long it takes. Thanks again to everyone who has supported
my efforts.

UPDATE (3/31/15): Yes, it’s been a while, with another unexpectedly busy stretch of
time, but I have been working fairly steadily (if slowly) on the Op. 10 Ballades
since September. This has been one of the most requested guides (as have all the
solo piano works), so I’m glad to finally have it available. With its posting, the
only solo piano opus remaining is Op. 116, but it really is time to give attention
to other genres. And it is REALLY time to revise the Op. 84 guide. That is
absolutely my next task on the site. After that, I will finally fix the remaining
score links (which should work up to Op. 82). I’ve been tweaking the Spotify list
a little (adding true quartet recordings of Op. 103, Nos. 8-10, interspersed with
the solo versions of 1-7 and 11; adding at least the original piano duet versions
of the Hungarian Dances, WoO 1). And I’m going to gently mention the little PayPal
button at the top again. After I posted it, I received a fair number of generous
donations, for which I am grateful, but the well has been dry for a while. If you
are interested in seeing the project brought to completion (and in avoiding long
September-March gaps between postings--there were also no donations during that
time), then please consider clicking the button and helping me out. Thank you!

Additional Note: With the Op. 10 guide, I’m experimenting with a new idea--adding
links to other guides when reference is made to other works. I think that is
something I should have explored long ago, but again, it will be an extended
project to add these to existing guides.

RINALDO STRIKES AGAIN (8/19/14): This is mainly for the Brahms scholars who may be
skeptically watching me with wagging fingers. At some point, I knew about the ten
measures that Brahms apparently cut from the very end of Rinaldo’s main section,
but long ago forgot about them. This is partly due to the fact that my Kalmus
reprint of the Sämtliche Werke edition edited by Eusebius Mandyczewski does not
include the front matter with editorial notes. (Oh, Dover, why did you never
reprint this? The Kalmus is overpriced and incomplete.) These editorial notes
included the ten excised bars as a supplement. When I was assembling my Brahms
recordings in the late 1990s, the Sinopoli/Kollo Rinaldo on DG (part of the re-
released Complete Edition) really was the only obtainable version. It did not
include the ten bars, and neither did the only readily available full score. I
never did consult the piano/vocal score. I tend to avoid those when analyzing
choral/orchestral works. Obviously, I should have done so. Anyway, to my horror,
those ten bars reared their ugly head while I was listening to the
Albrecht/Andersen recording on Chandos. I discovered that at least one other
recent recording, De Billy/Botha on Oehms, includes them. I then recalled that
they are, in fact, in the first edition (to which I have linked in my guide). So I
had a quandary. I completed the guide for Rinaldo last year, and I believe it to
be the site’s magnum opus. I have neither the desire nor the willpower to change
the recording, and no available full score (they are all reprints of the Sämtliche
Werke edition) includes the measures. Yet piano/vocal scores include them even
today. I have no idea what will happen when the new Henle Brahms Gesamtausgabe
tackles the piece. I know that Professor Robert Pascall disagrees strongly with
Mandyczewski’s consistent assumption that Brahms’s changes in his personal copies
of the first editions represent his final, definitive thoughts. Indeed, no edition
published in Brahms’s lifetime cut the measures.

The problem is that I really don’t like these ten measures. They sound strange,
like an interpolation. Indeed, their material is almost entirely new. And really,
asking the tenor soloist for a high B-flat (sung fairly quietly) at that point of
the work is rather sadistic. If Brahms meant to cut them, it was a good decision.
But I am a completist to a fault. I go out of my way to use recordings that
include every repeat. So I felt that I needed to address the ten measures in my
guide. I have therefore added a brief explanation and description of them at the
end of the main section, before the final chorus. Brahmsians, please give me
credit for this!

UPDATE (6/15/14): I can’t believe that I haven’t done this yet, but in an exciting
development, I have assembled a complete Brahms playlist on Spotify! Almost all of
the recordings in this playlist are the ones I have used or will use in the guides.
Only one recording for guides I have already done, the two-piano works performed by
Argerich and Rabinovitch on Teldec, is not (yet) available on Spotify. This
applies to the Sonata, Op. 34b and to the two-piano version of the Op. 39 waltzes.
For now, I’ve included a substitute recording for these pieces, as well as for the
five or so other works whose guides are not yet completed and for which I could not
find my intended recording. The playlist is in opus order, and includes all the
alternate versions covered in the guides. It should be self-explanatory. I have
included two recordings for Op. 84. This is the only existing guide that still
requires major revision, and this will happen shortly. In the revision, I am going
to include timings for a recording with two voices as well as the existing timings
for the solo recording. The playlist does not yet include works without opus
number. I have no intention of doing guides for these “WoO”-numbered pieces
(including the Hungarian Dances, the F.A.E. Scherzo, all folksong arrangements, the
early organ pieces, etc.) until all the opus numbers are done. The existence of
this playlist should GREATLY enhance the usability of the guides, giving instant
access to the recordings. If I have previously given anybody private access to the
recordings, have no fear, that location will continue to be updated and available.
One great aspect of the Spotify playlist is that Spotify smoothly transitions
between tracks where there should be no gap (Rinaldo and some variations sets are
good examples of where this is desirable). Of course, if it’s time for an ad, all
bets are off. So, without further ado, access to the playlist is HERE!
For more detailed clarification on the playlist, particularly all the alternate
versions, click here.

IMSLP score links are now repaired through Op. 82. Alternate keys for songs are
now indicated through Op. 72 (the newest guide). We’re getting there! In the
distant future, when the guides are done, I may revisit the issue of song keys in
the guides (a point that continues to trouble me), giving indication as to which
keys are used in the recordings and possibly for the various other complete song
sets that are available (such as the CPO and Brilliant sets). Analysis in the
guides is ALWAYS done with reference to the original key, whether or not (usually
not) the song in question is sung in that key by Fischer-Dieskau or Norman.

UPDATE (2/26/14): Well, it had to happen eventually. The Lullaby has finally
arrived at the Brahms Listening Guides website. This is for the other 95%--I
guess. But you, sophisticated regular visitors, will never call it “Brahms’
Lullaby” again. And even if you do, you’ll rebel against the horrible AP style
Brahms’ and properly style it as “Brahms’s Lullaby.” After all, we wouldn’t want
to imply that the most famous cradle song in the world was written by several
members of the family Brahm! Or even better, you will demonstrate your
sophistication by putting your child to sleep while singing Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No.
4, making sure the infant grows up knowing its proper designation.

In more mundane news, I neglected to mention on this front page that last month, I
added the version without voices (Op. 65a) to the guide for the New Liebeslieder
Waltzes, Op. 65a, in the same manner that this was done for Op. 52, as described
below. Score links have now been fixed and updated through Op. 69!

UPDATE (1/9/14): As mentioned in the guide itself, I have departed from my usual
practice in constructing separate guides for the Piano Quintet, Op. 34, and its
version as a Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b. Typically, alternate versions of
works are presented within the same guide (e.g., Opp. 12, 18, 39, 52, 65, 120 Nos.
1 & 2). The reasons for doing a separate guide for Op. 34b are actually obvious;
the fact that neither piano part in the sonata matches the piano part in the
quintet (and the sheer scope of the differences in the scoring) really left me no
choice. The guides are among the largest I have done for instrumental works, which
speaks to the vast content and compositional intricacy of this music, in either of
its two versions. I did use the guide for Op. 34 as a template for Op. 34b, but I
made an effort to treat the two-piano version independently, with as little
reference to the quintet version or to string instruments as possible, only doing
so in a few cases of particular interest.

I apologize once again for the long delay; this was one of the most challenging
works to tackle, and I had to do it twice (at a busy time of the year). I now
intend to turn for a time to song sets and other smaller works--the Piano Quintet
has kind of drained me. Expect to see more movement on the updating of score links
as well, as more low-voice versions from the Peters Edition of the songs become
available on IMSLP.

UPDATE (9/17/13): Whew! Now that I’ve tackled Rinaldo, the greatest obstacle to
eventually finishing this long project has been removed. I had been concerned
about this particular work for some time. It is the most singular and unique among
all of Brahms’s major works, his only choral setting of an overtly dramatic text,
and the only large composition to have an almost completely continuous structure.
I had debated for many months how I would handle this guide when it came up. Even
the issue of posting translations for such a long text proved a puzzle, as did the
issue of how to handle a multi-track recording of a piece with only one real break.
The result is what will likely be the magnum opus of the Brahms Listening Guides.
No, it’s not the biggest Brahms work or even the most profound. In fact, it is
probably the least familiar of all the major compositions. But it provided
challenges to my established method, and I am extremely happy to have finished it.
I hope you enjoy my approach to this unusual piece. As you can see, it took a
while. Another much-demanded piece, the Piano Quintet (Op. 34), is coming next.

I am mindful of the need to update the rest of the score links. I am kind of
stalled there right now because the low-key editions for the later song opus
numbers have not yet been posted to IMSLP. Still, I intend to move forward with
non-song opus numbers. The links are fixed through Op. 55.

On another subject entirely, my city of Boulder has been ravaged by disastrous


floods in the last week. Ironically, with everything shut down because of an
abundance of water, I was able to find time to finish describing Brahms’s thrilling
setting of Rinaldo’s voyage away from Armida’s enchanted island. We find silver
linings where we can. While my family was fortunate to escape with no damage to
health or property, the devastation around us is awesome and terrible. I ask for
thoughts and prayers on behalf of those who suffered devastating losses in this
incredible catastrophe.

UPDATE (6/4/13): The guide for the Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52, has been updated
to consider the version for piano duet without voices published as Op. 52a. I had
resisted including this version because I consider it inferior. But it does have a
prominence among arrangements because of the separate opus number with letter,
because it was included in the Sämtliche Werke, and because recordings are readily
available. There are very few alterations of any significance from the piano duet
parts of the main version with vocal quartet. The most prominent of these is the
embellished repeat of No. 7, Part 2. I hope that my method of considering this
version is unobtrusive, but still useful. I did not consider it worthy of its own
separate outline as with, for example, the viola versions of the Op. 120 sonatas.
At some point in the near future, this update will also be done for the New
Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 65.

Score links have been updated and corrected through Op. 55 (and for any guides with
higher numbers constructed from 2012 on). The latest new guide is the A-major
Piano Quartet, Op. 26, the composer’s longest instrumental work! On deck are the
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, and the First Cello Sonata, Op. 38.

UPDATE (3/4/13): I’ve again moved the updates to the archive page (linked below).
I am regularly posting guides again, but at a slower pace than in 2008 and 2009.
The latest guide to be posted, the F-minor piano sonata (Op. 5), has been long
awaited and requested. I’m happy to finally have it available. Score links have
been updated through Op. 33. Indications of alternate keys for solo songs are also
being added as I fix the score links. Again, this will be an extended process, as
most of my time on the site will be spent creating new guides. Thanks again for
all the messages of support!

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