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Notes on Brahms: 20 Crucial Works
The "Notes on ..." series by distinguished music critic Conrad Wilson illuminates the music of some of history's greatest composers in relation to their private lives. In each volume Wilson selects twenty crucial works of a given composer, discusses these masterpieces with insight and verve, and tells why these particular works are fundamental to understanding the composer. Wilson's vast musical expertise and succinct, polished prose style permeate these pages. Meant for any general reader interested in music, these guidebooks are ideal for dipping into as well as reading straight through. The stern beauty of Brahms's last works sometimes causes listeners to forget that Brahms was a man who enjoyed himself. Wilson looks anew at the summer composer inspired by sunshine, who once remarked that the lakeside air was so full of melodies that he had to take care not to trample on them. These melodies today infuse his most memorable works.
121 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 2005
2 people want to read
About the author
Conrad Wilson
29 books2 followersConrad Wilson was educated at Daniel Stewart's College, where he wrote reviews for the school magazine.
On leaving school, he trained as a journalist with the Edinburgh Dispatch. The Dispatch’s editor Albert Mackie gave him plenty space to hone his critical skills, sending him to review performances as far afield as London’s Covent Garden. National Service took Wilson to Paris, an eye-opening experience that made the resumption of his traineeship in Edinburgh seem like a step backwards. Before long he was off to Amsterdam as programme editor for Philips Records, writing with equal ease on jazz and pop.
After a spell as sub-editor in the BBC’s London newsroom, a conversation with The Scotsman’s London Editor, Eric Mackay, resulted in his appointment as the paper’s London-based Cultural Correspondent.
When Christopher Grier resigned in 1963, Conrad snatched the opportunity to head back north. “To be music critic of The Scotsman in its heyday was the job I had envisaged since boyhood,” he recently reminisced.
After retiring from The Scotsman, he continued as a freelance critic for the Herald.
Wilson is survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage to Ruth, and by his second wife Sue and their three daughters.
Abridged from Watson's obituary in The Scotsman.
On leaving school, he trained as a journalist with the Edinburgh Dispatch. The Dispatch’s editor Albert Mackie gave him plenty space to hone his critical skills, sending him to review performances as far afield as London’s Covent Garden. National Service took Wilson to Paris, an eye-opening experience that made the resumption of his traineeship in Edinburgh seem like a step backwards. Before long he was off to Amsterdam as programme editor for Philips Records, writing with equal ease on jazz and pop.
After a spell as sub-editor in the BBC’s London newsroom, a conversation with The Scotsman’s London Editor, Eric Mackay, resulted in his appointment as the paper’s London-based Cultural Correspondent.
When Christopher Grier resigned in 1963, Conrad snatched the opportunity to head back north. “To be music critic of The Scotsman in its heyday was the job I had envisaged since boyhood,” he recently reminisced.
After retiring from The Scotsman, he continued as a freelance critic for the Herald.
Wilson is survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage to Ruth, and by his second wife Sue and their three daughters.
Abridged from Watson's obituary in The Scotsman.
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November 4, 2024
That is work is decent but paltry surely reflect the status of its composer. Nobody’s favourite composer, Brahms’s early symphonies with their numbers and musical symbols reflect boxes from 1984 while his later symphonies Song of Songs and Four Serious Songs hardly suggest Mr Emotional Intelligence. Then again, that he was rejected by Schumann’s daughter Julie and “choked”, running out the house, does strongly hint at an emotional inner-life one could hear through the music.
Displaying 1 of 1 review