Romain Rolland once said: "In everyone's heart there is a grave buried in the heart of the beloved, which cannot be washed away by the wild current of life." ”
This issue continues to share the romantic retro Brahms for everyone.
01
In the early summer of 1896, an old man with a white eyebrow stood alone by the cemetery in Bonn, took out his violin and put it on his shoulder, and pulled up a sad tune, the tune spread with the wind, the air became humid, and he let the silent wetness drip into the soil in front of the tombstone. The sound of the piano seems to tell the feelings of 43 years and the thoughts of 40 years. The composer was none other than Johannes Brahms.
September 30, 1853, was a day of great significance for the 20-year-old Brahms. At the recommendation of the violinist Joassim, he finally had the opportunity to visit Robert Schumann with his works. Schumann received the young man and asked him to play a song, and Brahms immediately played a piano sonata in C major.
Schumann was so excited that he said to the young man sitting on the piano, "You wait, I must let Clara listen." In this way, Clara, dressed in plain clothes and with eyes like autumn water, appeared in front of Brahms' eyes. This year, Clara was 34 years old, married, and a mother of several children.
Yu Hua once explained Brahms this way in his book "The Narrative of Music": "When he saw Schumann and Clara and their six children living in a simple house, he finally knew what he had been looking for... He was close to the classical ideals of music, and he saw his own path on the road that extended from Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann, and his path led to Beethoven and Bach."
02
Since then, Schumann has enthusiastically recommended such a talented young man to the music industry, and Schumann and Brahms are also friends, and Clara is the wife of the mentor, Brahms has witnessed Clara dedicating all the love of her life to her husband, even during the period when Schumann's mental illness was worsening.
Therefore, Brahms chose to accompany him silently, he gave up many opportunities for fame and money in order to be able to accompany Clara, and also wrote many touching love letters for Clara. But none of these love letters ended up clara seeing.
Perhaps it was from Clara that he learned the true meaning of love and experienced the beauty of restraint. After Schumann's death, Brahms understood more clearly that love is fulfillment, not possession, and can make up for Schumann's position in Clara's heart with this love.
"Even if it turns to dust, Clara, your dead favorite still fills any gap between you and me until death comes again, so how can I have you?" That year Brahms chose to leave silently.
03
On May 20, 1896, Brahms, who was increasingly troubled by illness, was recuperating in Switzerland, and he received a telegram from Frankfurt, but the news of Clara's death was that the 63-year-old did not want to stay for a second, and set off for Frankfurt with his critically ill body, perhaps fate was so tricky, in a panic he got on the wrong train, and at that moment his heart and the train went in the opposite direction, and finally failed to catch the funeral to see Clara's last side.
Thus, there was the opening scene of the article, and after two days and two nights, Brahms finally came to Clara across the tombstone, trembled and took out the manuscript of his "Four Serious Songs" and presented it to the tomb, which was originally a suite he made for Clara's birthday, but now it is forever separated.
After returning from Bonn, Brahms said in tears: "From now on there will be no one who loves to cry!" Less than a year after Clara's death, Brahms also passed away. Perhaps, as he says, "All my beautiful melodies come from Clara.".
After losing his beloved, the music of Brahms's life also came to an abrupt end. Brahms's music is full of restraint, but in fact, the heart is extremely soft, just as his life experience, restrained feelings have made him childless for life, but the soft heart has allowed him to create the warmest lullaby.
Listening to Brahms's music, it seems that there is a constant flow of power leading you, he takes you to see nature and humanities, feel life and death, and finally you will find that he wants to tell you: "love and thoughts", which is eternal and constantly changing temperature and color.
04
In the summer of 2013, after walking through Mozart Square in Salzburg and seeing Verona, the city of Love by Shakespeare, I came to the beautiful Scheler Hill next to Switzerland, where various classical concerts were performed every night, either solo or chamber, and I was the first to listen to brahms's "Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor" fully played live.
One day 138 years ago, Brahms finally completed the third piano quartet in C minor dedicated to Clara, 20 years after he left Clara, and he used this 20 years to change and finally complete the melody he missed and sent it to Clara.
About those loves that move in existence, quote a poem by Neruda as the end of the article:
"I like that you are quiet
It's as if you've disappeared
Thousands of miles away
Full of mourning
It's as if you're no longer alive
At that time
One word
A smile
That's enough
And I'll be happy
Be happy because it's not real."
Finally, let's meet phosphorescence and experience peace in the third movement of Brahms's Piano Quartet in C minor.
- Dubbing -
Fan Zimu
- Text -
Lu Yuhan
- Planning -
Wang Bo, Wang Feng, Zhou Wanlu, Li Zezhao, Xue Zexu
- Edit -
Zhang Xian, Pan Xian, Guo Zhoufan, Xu Junyi, Zhang Yu, Luo Limin
- Typography -
Lin Shengjie