A vote for Brahms as the composer best suited to our current moment
“My mother, the mineralogist Daphne Ross, died on February 24th, at the age of ninety-one,” writes Alex Ross in Thursday’s (4/16) New Yorker. “Unable to sleep … I turned to Brahms because I always turn to Brahms…. I find him the most companionable, the most sympathetic of composers. There is enormous sadness in his work, and yet it is a sadness that glows with understanding, that eases gloom by sharing its own. The music seems in a strange way to be listening to you, even as you listen to it. At a time when an uncommonly large number of people are experiencing grief, I recommend Brahms as a counsellor and confidant.… The Intermezzo Opus 117, No. 1 begins with a lullaby of heartbreaking simplicity and purity, but it gives way to a middle section of brooding, bass-excavating arpeggios, and when the lullaby returns it is embroidered, dispersed, distanced from reality. Before the final cadence, it comes to a halt, as if silently shuddering…. Last Christmas, … I played a few CDs for my mother [including] Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet… Her head tilted to the side, her eyes twinkled, her mouth worked itself into a smile…. We listened together, and Brahms listened to us both.”
