Visiting With Brahms

This afternoon Rebecca Penneys, the fabulous pianist who teaches at Eastman and the Chautauqua Institute, presented a recital of the music of Turina, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Bolcom, and Albright. She never fails to amaze me with her wonderful musicianship.

She mentioned Brahms being interviewed and saying that he went to a "different place" when he composed, and that he could feel those times coming on, and would set aside time to compose. Penneys peformed the Three Intermezzi, Op. 117, written when Brahms was in his mid-sixties and beginning to write some of his most profound and eloquent masterpieces. These pieces definitely take me to a "different place."

I am taken back to a lovely afternoon in Bad Ischl, walking around the old town and trying to imagine what Brahms did when he spent time there. I particularly am reminded of a path along the river which leads into the mountains. There are little wine houses along the way, and eventually there is a hill with shrines along the road. I felt Brahms walking along with me as I explored this new territory.

I know he played the organ in Bad Ischl, and met with Mahler there on at least one occasion:

Mahler, sarcastically, as they are walking over a bridge: "Look! There goes the last wave to the sea."

Brahms, equally sarcastic: "Let's hope it doesn't go to a swamp."

One of my favorite photos of Brahms is with Johann Strauss, and I think it is on the porch of one of the hotels in Bad Ischl, which still has hotels and spas where tourists come to "take the waters."

Brahms was an old man during his last visits there, and I imagine him sitting on one of the benches on the grounds of the Emperor's summer palace, looking at the wonderful variety of trees planted from gifts of visiting heads of state from all over the world, and dozing off as I did after a week of strenuous hiking in the Schladminger Tauern, assisted by a touch of Austrian white wine.