Brahms Experience

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

Public Brahms, Private Brahms

20141006

Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 1 of 5.

Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music.

To this day Brahms has a reputation as a rather terse, fearsome personality who wrote dark, serious music. But his tender, intimate chamber music gives a clue to how he behaved behind closed doors and among friends.

Pianist and writer Natasha Loges looks at what lies behind Brahms' famously gruff public persona, and discovers his tender, private side. She offers an invitation into Brahms' inner circle: music making at home, coffee and conversation with friends, the food he enjoyed, and the women he flirted with.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Pianist Natasha Loges considers what lay behind Brahms's famously gruff public persona.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Brahms And Nature

20141007

Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 2 of 5.

Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music.

Interaction with nature is one of the cornerstones of 19th-century Romantic music. Writer Lesley Chamberlain offers a chance to join Brahms for a creative ramble and sets his work in the climate of German ideas about nature.

In the German Romantic tradition Nature is Art's rival and the artist's consolation. Brahms' love of nature, which came to him in hours of shared and solitary walking, intensified the demands he made on himself as a composer.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Writer Lesley Chamberlain investigates how Brahms was influenced by the natural world.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Brahms And Germany

20141008

Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 3 of 5.

Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music.

Brahms lived in a time of great political change. In his late thirties he saw the birth of a unified German nation under the 'Iron Chancellor' Otto von Bismarck. The question of what this Germany was to be became one of the great issues of the day.

Writer and pianist Natasha Loges explores the nationalist elements of Brahms' music. She examines his famous feud with the more openly patriotic Richard Wagner, and the ways in which Brahms' 'German' image was manipulated in the next century by the Nazis.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Natasha Loges explores Brahms's complex political relationship with his homeland.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Brahms And Freud

20141009

Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 4 of 5.

Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music.

Brahms and and Freud co-existed in Vienna, as psychoanalysis was being born. But they belong to two vastly different epochs: what can we learn by setting them side by side?

Often at a loss for words, frequently gruff and spiky, Brahms was a man with complex personal traits. Devastated by his parents' disintegrating marriage, he found relationships exceptionally difficult.

A question Freud once asked of us all might help us understand the hidden personality of Johannes Brahms: what is the sublimation of sexual desire, and how much unfulfilled libido can we bear?

Writer Lesley Chamberlain takes us back to the Vienna of the 1890s, where Brahms was composing his late masterpieces and Freud was carrying out his groundbreaking early work.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Lesley Chamberlain asks what can be learnt by comparing the work of Brahms and Freud.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Brahms And The Future

20141010

Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 5 of 5.

Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music.

Brahms lived in a time of tremendous change. The idea of the 'future' was never far from peoples' minds: new technology was emerging, the political map of Europe redrawn, and long-cherished ideas of art and culture overturned.

But how did Brahms, a composer who mined the music of the past for inspiration, fit in with a world where progress was king?

Pianist and writer Natasha Loges looks at Brahms' views on the future: recording technology, piano design - and his own place in the future of music.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Pianist and writer Natasha Loges discusses Brahms's views on the future of music.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Comments
01	Public Brahms, Private Brahms	20141006	Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 1 of 5. Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music. To this day Brahms has a reputation as a rather terse, fearsome personality who wrote dark, serious music. But his tender, intimate chamber music gives a clue to how he behaved behind closed doors and among friends. Pianist and writer Natasha Loges looks at what lies behind Brahms' famously gruff public persona, and discovers his tender, private side. She offers an invitation into Brahms' inner circle: music making at home, coffee and conversation with friends, the food he enjoyed, and the women he flirted with. Producer: Melvin Rickarby. Pianist Natasha Loges considers what lay behind Brahms's famously gruff public persona. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
02	Brahms And Nature	20141007	Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 2 of 5. Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music. Interaction with nature is one of the cornerstones of 19th-century Romantic music. Writer Lesley Chamberlain offers a chance to join Brahms for a creative ramble and sets his work in the climate of German ideas about nature. In the German Romantic tradition Nature is Art's rival and the artist's consolation. Brahms' love of nature, which came to him in hours of shared and solitary walking, intensified the demands he made on himself as a composer. Producer: Melvin Rickarby. Writer Lesley Chamberlain investigates how Brahms was influenced by the natural world. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
03	Brahms And Germany	20141008	Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 3 of 5. Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music. Brahms lived in a time of great political change. In his late thirties he saw the birth of a unified German nation under the 'Iron Chancellor' Otto von Bismarck. The question of what this Germany was to be became one of the great issues of the day. Writer and pianist Natasha Loges explores the nationalist elements of Brahms' music. She examines his famous feud with the more openly patriotic Richard Wagner, and the ways in which Brahms' 'German' image was manipulated in the next century by the Nazis. Producer: Melvin Rickarby. Natasha Loges explores Brahms's complex political relationship with his homeland. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
04	Brahms And Freud	20141009	Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 4 of 5. Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music. Brahms and and Freud co-existed in Vienna, as psychoanalysis was being born. But they belong to two vastly different epochs: what can we learn by setting them side by side? Often at a loss for words, frequently gruff and spiky, Brahms was a man with complex personal traits. Devastated by his parents' disintegrating marriage, he found relationships exceptionally difficult. A question Freud once asked of us all might help us understand the hidden personality of Johannes Brahms: what is the sublimation of sexual desire, and how much unfulfilled libido can we bear? Writer Lesley Chamberlain takes us back to the Vienna of the 1890s, where Brahms was composing his late masterpieces and Freud was carrying out his groundbreaking early work. Producer: Melvin Rickarby. Lesley Chamberlain asks what can be learnt by comparing the work of Brahms and Freud. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
05	Brahms And The Future	20141010	Five Essays about the 19th-century German composer Johannes Brahms. Part 5 of 5. Recorded in front of an audience at St. Georges, Bristol, as part of BBC Radio 3's Brahms Experience - a week-long exploration of Brahms' life and music. Brahms lived in a time of tremendous change. The idea of the 'future' was never far from peoples' minds: new technology was emerging, the political map of Europe redrawn, and long-cherished ideas of art and culture overturned. But how did Brahms, a composer who mined the music of the past for inspiration, fit in with a world where progress was king? Pianist and writer Natasha Loges looks at Brahms' views on the future: recording technology, piano design - and his own place in the future of music. Producer: Melvin Rickarby. Pianist and writer Natasha Loges discusses Brahms's views on the future of music. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.