Today's Classical Corner... the effervescence of Brahms' Intermezzo!
I
think well-described by MFA Student Seth Horvitz: The opening of
Brahms’s Intermezzo in B-flat Minor (Opus 117, No. 2) is astonishing.
The piece is off and running from the start, suggesting multiple tonal
regions. Brahms displays his mastery of ambiguity, that makes us feel as
if we are being led in different directions simultaneously,
overlappingly. The twists and turns in the harmony rarely give the
listener any sense of solid ground. Glenn Gould said he liked the Brahms
Intermezzi for their “atmosphere of improvisation.” Perhaps the most
highly developed improvisations achieve a kind of multi-layered
integration that “composed” music can never quite reach."
The last sentence is profound, hence Jazz is king. :)
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