THE LEARNING CURVE Winter/Spring 2010
Art History, Archaeology, Astronomy, History, Literature, Philosophy, Music

Johannes Brahms the Modernist

The Three Bs - Bach, Beethoven, Brahms - are an iconic and acknowledged grouping in the musical landscape.  Johannes Brahms was the last of the great composers to find new life and to give new life to the old forms of his beloved Bach and Beethoven - the sonata, the fugue, theme and variations. Yet he did so in highly modern and singular ways - a reconfiguration of old forms and values, that took audiences of his day decades to fully comprehend and appreciate. The saying of Johann von Goethe captures Brahms’ utter belief in all great music that came before: “The  most original men are not original because they tell us something absolutely new, but because they tell us things in a way in which they were never told before.”

Week I: The Beginning
The beardless young man from the hinterlands: Hamburg and his early influences.
Week 2: “Hats off, a genius”
Robert Schumann’s pronouncement & the fateful years with Robert and Clara Schumann
Week 3:  A Decade of Discovery
Ten interminable years in his mid-20s to mid-30s before completing his Symphony #1 and Piano Concerto #1
Week 4: The Master: Revered by the musical elite, reviled by Richard Wagner and his followers, the slow but steady progression as a great man in music.
Week 5: The Muse
Feeling he had nothing left to give or add, Brahms finds artistic renewal in his last decade of life  in the artistry of clarinetist, Robert Muhfield.
When: Tuesdays Feb 23 – Mar 23, 1:30-3:30pm
Where: The Windmill Inn, 4250 N. Campbell Ave.
Cost: $115 (5 sessions)

Instructor: Harry Clark, cellist and playwright, creates an extraordinary interweaving of music and biography. Cofounder and artistic director of Chamber Music PLUS, and a founding member of the Clark-Schuldman Duo, Harry Clark and his partner Sanda Schuldman have been heard on every important stage in America and served as artists-in-residence at Quinnipiac University for the past ten seasons.

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