Brahms B Major Piano Trio

When we listen to the music of Johannes Brahms, we often
are reminded of the image of the portly bearded Brahms at the
piano, eyes closed in a soulful pose. Brahms’ works always, even
in his youth, seemed to have a burnished maturity about them. As
I’ve said many times on this show, Brahms’ music is often
described as autumnal, and there’s a good reason for this, as its
gentle melancholy is one of those things that never left Brahms
even in his earlier works. But the piece we’re talking about
today isn’t an early work, or a late work of Brahms. Actually,
it’s both! Brahms’ B major trio is one of the rarest of rare
pieces, in that it is published in two distinct versions, a
version that Brahms wrote when he was just 20 years old, and a
work that he heavily revised near the end of his career 35 years
later, making changes that in some senses fundamentally recast
the piece. At the same time, much of the original material is
left in place, creating an unusual amalgam of the youthful and
the mature. Brahms himself jokingly said that in the revisions of
the piece, “I didn't provide it with a new wig, just combed and
arranged its hair a little" Today on this Patreon sponsored
episode I’ll take you through this piece in both of its versions,
exploring the original trio and then its far more performed
revision, trying to see why Brahms made the changes that he made,
and what we can learn about his compositional process. We’ll also
learn why Brahms’ B major piano trio is the answer to a famous(in
the classical music world) trivia question! Join us!