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Thanks Pomenitul. I have Jorg Demus for solo Schumann, which set has a super mellow sound which I find really appropriate for the smaller melodic pieces but not so much for the more stormy romantic things and I do want to get a second set to complement that one!
So I wanted to do some listening and re-examine my position. I think you're right about the piano being the critical element, for me at least that's mainly where Schumann is surpassing Brahms; in all non-piano works it's Brahms who easily takes the lead. Brahms' symphonies are certainly greater, but his piano concertos aren't, I don't think! Schumann's single piano concerto is so much more concentrated and concise, natural like flowing water, whereas the Brahms piano concertos are like these monstrous and somewhat ponderous things that I tend to lose track of as they go on and on. Brahms' violin concerto however is first-rate and while I don't think I've heard Schumann's yet, somehow I can't imagine it being quite as good; Brahms is just so masterful at writing for strings. I didn't re-listen to these yet, but I remember ranking the Brahms' double-concerto about equal with Schumann's cello concerto, both seeming like minor works overall? I also overlooked some critical things, like the Brahms string quintets and sextets for instance; all those works are nothing less than rarefied and exquisite, and all of them invariably remind me of shimmering color-changing sculptures that kind of levitate in the air -- nothing in Schumann is quite like that! Ditto the clarinet works, which are very, very special indeed.
I re-listened to some of the string quartets of each as well; hard to say whose I prefer ultimately, they're pretty different. They're interesting in particular to me right now (as I'm drawing all these parallels) because Schumann's sound like Brahms, being very strictly fugal/classical with limited melodic elements, and the Brahms' contain the characteristics I associate with Schumann! Brahms' string quartets at least give me the impression of being quite melodic and intensely romantic, though perhaps as you say they're ultimately more comparable to Beethoven than anything else. They certainly resemble the late Schubert ones, which I understand also resemble Beethoven?
I haven't yet spent time with Beethoven's quartets, Beethoven really bothers me for reasons I find hard to articulate; that said, the only string quartet of his I'm familiar with is one I do think pretty amazing, it is the one in Godard's (I think) masterpiece Prenom: Carmen where it is both the score and part of the plot, with the quartet performing it visible on screen quite often! I'm not even sure which quartet it is, I believe it is one of the later "difficult" ones, but it is a very good one all the same! I should probably really hear all those a few times before spouting off more half-baked opinions!
― liam fennell, Friday, 8 March 2019 13:43 (five years ago) link
"instead he plants seeds that later blossom exactly as you expect them to?"
this sort of mirrors my recent experiences of initially finding his symphonies whelming at best - but I keep coming back for more and am starting to like them a lot.
― calzino, Friday, 8 March 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link