Brahms aged 20 in 1853 If anyone were ever to do anything as superficial as to run a competition for the most handsome composer of classical music, the prize would, undoubtedly in my opinion, go to an old man with…
Yesterday was St. Valentine’s Day and I was in the mood for Brahms. The piece on my 1878 ‘turntable,’ my journey through the history of classical music, is his first violin sonata, known as The Raindrop after one of his…
It was raining here in Lewes, UK, this morning and the sky was angry and dark. Great I thought, I can stay in and do indoor things, weekend, lazy, self-indulgent things. My gym schedule rules that I shouldn’t do any…
The Times ran an article yesterday that might have seemed dull to some but was pure delight to a classical music geek like me. They asked nine different writers to name their favourite numbered symphony – each writer having just…
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) When, if, people think of the composer Brahms, they remember the man with the big bushy beard. He looks jovial enough here but maybe those eyes are a mismatch for Santa Claus – they are much too…
Friday afternoon in Lewes On Friday night, my fellow residents of Lewes will have noticed the Autumn sunshine and, later on, that astonishingly bright Moon. It felt like a special day somehow and all I needed was the right music…