The Best of Brahms

George Bernard Shaw, who was very perceptive about music but as often wrong, once remarked that listening to the Brahms German Requiem was a sacrifice that could be asked of a man only once in his life. Shaw was probably upset because in that oratorio—by no standard is it truly a requiem—God is frequently mentioned, which to a Fabian would be an abomination. I mention Shaw’s lame scherzo only to note that more nonsense has been written about Brahms than about any other composer, with the possible exception of Berlioz.

Contemporary and later critics found his compositions long-winded, artificial, complex. The German Requiem has its longueurs, true, but one need only listen to the resplendent new recording by Bernard Haitink and the Vienna Philharmonic (Philips 6769 055) of these settings to passages from the Bible to realize that Brahms’s commentary on man’s fate is conspicuously worthy of serious attention. To my perhaps biased mind, Brahms should never have written vocal or chamber music. He had one instrument, the orchestra—and it was in the symphonies and the concertos that he was most truly himself. The symphonies have been praised till Hell won’t have them. To me, however, they are surpassed by the concertos.

George Bernard Shaw, who was very perceptive about music but as often wrong, once remarked that listening to the Brahms German Requiem was a sacrifice that could be asked of a man only once in his life. Shaw was probably upset because in that oratorio—by no standard is it truly a requiem—God is frequently mentioned, which to a Fabian would be an abomination. I mention Shaw’s lame scherzo only to note that more nonsense has been written about Brahms than about any other composer, with the possible exception of Berlioz.

Contemporary and later critics found his compositions long-winded, artificial, complex. The German Requiem has its longueurs, true, but one need only listen to the resplendent new recording by Bernard Haitink and the Vienna Philharmonic (Philips 6769 055) of these settings to passages from the Bible to realize that Brahms’s commentary on man’s fate is conspicuously worthy of serious attention. To my perhaps biased mind, Brahms should never have written vocal or chamber music. He had one instrument, the orchestra—and it was in the symphonies and the concertos that he was most truly himself. The symphonies have been praised till Hell won’t have them. To me, however, they are surpassed by the concertos.