麻豆约拍

Kate Molleson explores Brahms鈥檚 final decade, when he most valued his friends.

Johannes Brahms, the bearded and magisterial Romantic composer, could certainly do grandeur when required. But really, he was more interested in what music meant in ordinary life - how it can whisper, joke and console. He was a man who tried to find a place to belong all his life, wrote for the people closest to him, and that fondness is writ large in his music. All this week, Kate Molleson focuses on Brahms at home, revealing the subtle sides of this sometimes brawny composer 鈥� the tender heart behind the famous beard - through the music he wrote for himself and his friends to play.

Today, in the final years of Brahms life, he values his creature comforts more than ever. He also recognises the value of those closest to him, from his housekeeper Frau Truxa, to Clara Schumann and the Fellingers. He begins to repair old relationships with musical olive branches, and writes some of his most interior music for and about his friends. It鈥檚 they who rally round him in the coda of his life.

Hungarian Dance in D major, WoO1 No 18
Katia and Marielle LaBecque, piano

Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk, Op 109 No 3
Tenebrae
Nigel Short, conductor

Denn es gehet dem Mennschen (Serious Songs, Op 121 No 1)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
J枚rg Demus, piano

Intermezzo in E flat major, Op 117 No 1
Intermezzo in B minor, Op 119 No 1
Paul Lewis, piano

Piano Trio No 1 (1st movement 鈥� Allegro con brio)
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano

Double Concerto for violin and cello (2nd movement 鈥� Adagio)
Joshua Bell, violin
Steven Isserlis, cello

Academy of Ancient Music
Jeremy Denk, conductor

Intermezzo in A major, Op 118 No 2
Murray Perahia, piano

Produced by Amelia Parker for 麻豆约拍 Audio Wales and West