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Robert
Cohen discusses the DVORÁK’S CELLO CONCERTO IN B MINOR: FIRST MOVEMENT
Robert
Cohen on the legendery violinist and leader of the Amadeus Quartet Norbert Brainin
For the Nobert Brainin 80th Birthday Concert - Wigmore Hall 28 May 2003
Robert
Cohen discusses the 1st movement of Brahms E minor Sonata
for The Strad magazine - August 1991
Robert
Cohen on the legendery violinist and leader of the Amadeus Quartet Norbert Brainin
My first experience working with Norbert was one I shall never forget;
it exposed me to the personality and mind of a man who’s musical
instinct and understanding reach a level that is not only breathtaking,
but deeply inspiring and motivating:
We were playing
through the Schubert String Quintet and were midway through the slow
movement. My attention intensely focussed on Norbert in order to place
each pizzicato note precisely into his sighing phrases. Tension almost
unbearable, my nerves heightened at the thought of upsetting the flow
of this unique musical voice in mid-sentence. Suddenly, Norbert stops
and looks seriously straight into my eyes. I think: ‘That’s it. He’s
going to throw me out!’ After a moment, Norbert says: “Do you know the
one about the two violinists who met on a New York street corner and
one says to the other, ‘What’s your violin?’ The other says, ‘A sixteen
ninety-nine Stradivari’. The first says: ‘Boy, that’s cheap!’.
From then on we were best of friends. Norbert knew how to break the ice
and how to lead a young man nearly 40 years his junior to the musical
heights reached by very few. The footprints Norbert leaves on each of
our subsequent musical encounters are a mix of humanity and searing
musical standards. Footprints that cannot be filled but only followed
and examined. They lead me and his public to a truly beautiful place.
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Robert Cohen
discusses the 1st movement of Brahms E minor Sonata
for The Strad magazine - August 1991
The Brahms E minor Sonata is perhaps the first truly great romantic
sonata for cello and piano. Although Beethoven in his 5 sonatas had
already shown a mastery at composition for cello and piano, Brahms had
only the example of 2 Mendelssohn sonatas and the Chopin sonata to lead
the way in romantic writing and he dismissed the Chopin sonata from his
short list of influences! Never the less, Brahms went on to write two
great works for cello and piano; the first, in E minor, completed over
a three year period, proved universally popular.
I first
studied the E minor sonata when I was just 10 years old and although
many of the technical problems were beyond me, I was captured by the
powerful romantic passion of the music and the brooding intensity of
the lush cello writing. Brahms so brilliantly uses the cello to convey
his deeper feelings
Although the following performance
analysis of the movement appear very detailed, these details should be
used solely to construct a flow of musical ideas that you can
communicate simply and directly to your audience.
Lets start now, taking into consideration that the audience knows not what to expect!
You are given a serious,long, melodic and espressivo theme to play.
(Ex.1) Marked piano and written low on the instrument, it develops
using a small crescendo but diminuendos to a soft and poignant end. The
shape is perfect: an arched phrase, and combined with the dark cello
tones, it leaves the audience in no doubt of the movement's character.
But how can you best put these ideas into action?
The placing of the first note must be anticipated by a deep and slow
breath, a breath that physically prepares you to create a dark and
drawn sound. It will also help to create the right atmosphere for your
partner and the audience. On contact of the bow on the string,
concentrate on producing a fine, continuous sound without bulges,
paying particular attention to the details of dots and lines which
Brahms uses to articulate
his opening phrase. Your vibrato will
colour the sound but it should be more no than a colouring. The hushed
atmosphere and the off-beat piano chords indicate a subtle inclination
towards excitement. Try a reasonably fast vibrato but of small enough
oscillation not to interfere with the purity of the general sound. The
bow is your means of producing sound. Experiment with the contact and
speed of the bow so that you are in complete control of the vibration
of the string; You should be able to feel the vibration of the string
in your right hand through the heel of the bow - this necessitates a
relaxed and sensitive bow hold! My suggestion is that you need only use
half your bow for the first few bars and start to expand its use during
the crescendo, reducing it again in the diminuendo.
This
technique for altering the volume of sound is too rarely used in cello
playing and is often mistakenly replaced by the use of bow pressure
which alters the quality and not necessarily the quantity of sound.
During this opening passage, you must also be constantly aware of the
pianist placing off beat chords, perhaps in the hope of convincing you
that you are misplacing your barlines! Actually, this "opposition" idea
is the seed for many of the most exciting and dramatic sections in this
movement.
Continuing on to the second phrase, you see that it
has moved from the dark lower registers to the brightness of the A
string. The piano continues its pattern unchanged but the cello
projects an all together happier mood. The simplicity of Brahms'
writing shows itself so clearly here. The sound that you produce on the
A string will naturally be considerably more penetrating than the lower
strings used in the first phrase, but because Brahms marks piano dolce
(and not piano espressivo as before) it is necessary to adapt the sound
to fit the situation. A flautando bow stroke (a little pressure and a
fair amount of movement) to soften and free the sound would be most
appropriate, allowing you the space for a dynamic build-up of great
intensity and passion leading to the climax of the phrase, beautifully
high in the cello's register. The piano leaves you entirely alone just
after the climax and Brahms seems to ignore the expected phrase length,
insisting that you continue unabated at full intensity. It is during
this build-up that you must abandon your inhibitions, breath with
increasing depth and allow your physical movements the freedom to
transmit weight and natural strength from the centre of your body
through to the cello string. Feel the body of the cello vibrate. Do not
clamp the instrument between your legs or grasp at the bow; this will
restrict the vibrations and you will find yourself working harder to no
avail.
The phrase gradually descends but you must continue
the intensity through the diminuendo and into the new section where the
piano takes its turn in expressing the opening theme. The counter
melody you are now playing introduces the first triplet rhythm of the
sonata, and again it is in opposition to the piano. Brahms asks for
clear articulation in this passage and as the dynamic is piano, the bow
should actually stop before the separated triplet of each group.
Rather than completing the opening theme, the piano expands the
arpeggiated passage with crescendo to forte and the cello breaks in a
bar later with a similar phrase. (Ex.2)
Here Brahms
demonstrates how magnificently he can use the cello's power and range.
Against the piano's powerful chords, the cello enters more than one
octave below the piano and immediately the line strides upward to a
dramatic leap into the higher register of the A string. Use just a
third of the bow for the first note and more bow through the crescendo.
A slight portamento slide to join the huge interval leap to the climax
of this phrase will demonstrate the large distance between two notes in
a relevant and exciting way. (I should say at this point tat I believe
strongly that audible slides or shifts on the cello should be avoided
unless they expressively enhance a melody or line of music). After
this, the cello takes a low espressivo line, still well articulated and
in forte. Just before we reach a new piano dolce section in C major,
there is another dramatic crescendo that quickly tails away. This
relative major section is very similar to the beginning of the movement
but because of the major key, it is more relaxed and should therefore
be played with a warmer vibrato and a less restricted bow stroke. There
are also expressive but not dramatic hair pins that add to the romantic
quality of the passage. The music now takes on much longer lines,
building to a powerful one bar repeated pattern that includes repeated
crotchets. (Ex.3)
Again, Brahms writes clear articulation
markings and to define these repeated notes, great care must be taken
to separate them so that the piano's flying triplets do not obscure the
rhythm. Brahms is unrelenting in his passion over these and the next
few lines, pitting cello and piano against each other, but always in
complete harmony. There must be no delay in the forward movement of
this section. Even the smallest indulgence will destroy the heightened
intensity and pounding strength of the music. Play with an open and
strong sound, with full bows and a free vibrato, not forgetting the
sense of the music flowing forward. Again, pay great attention to the
phrase markings as they should be taken as "sound punctuation marks".
In the following passage, (Ex.4) a slight lift before starting each new
bow will give the necessary clarity to the pattern that alternates with
the piano.
It is these articulation details used in both the
cello and the piano that make a perfect balance between the two
instruments at all times. If these details are ignored, the sound
merges and the music and musicians are swamped! The cello finishes this
section in full swing, leaving the piano to continue with a dramatic
fortepiano chord that creates a new and hushed mood. The cello joins in
later into a phrase pattern that is identical to the section used in
Ex.4, but this time it is piano and should be played with a clear and
focussed sound - not too much bow movement and a contact quite close to
the bridge. The vibrato should be fast and compact. There is then a
diminuendo that leads to the first pianissimo section of the movement.
(Ex.5) A new atmosphere need to be created and this can be achieved by
a bow stroke over the fingerboard and a vibrato that only becomes
audible at the peak of the small hairpin.
At no time should
the sound be without character or finesse. We are now entering the most
tender and delicate part of the movement which is a bridge passage to
the development section (or repeated exposition). The two bars that
proceed it are to be used very carefully as a preparation, for there
needs to be a physical change in order to play the new pianissimo
section with the utmost beauty. The first of these two preparation bars
(marked with a * in Ex.6) is an ending note for the passage before but
is also the support note for the piano's two note phrase. This note
should be like a soft brush stroke that allows the cello to resonate
gently. In the next bar, there is a two note chord that comes at the
peak of a hairpin in the piano's right hand tied note! I haven't yet
played with a pianist who has managed to make a hairpin on a single
held note so it seems only fair to help them out a little by playing
the chord with a small stress, still with the brush-stroke type bow
movement.
The bridge passage has an accompaniment based on a
two note falling fifth figure - always awkward on a stringed instrument
- with which the piano plays a beautiful and happy tune derived from
material used earlier in the movement. The cello joins the piano's base
line (although one beat later) and creates a light background colour
with a flowing movement. This calls for a light and moving bow stroke
of only two thirds length with a small breath between each bow. This
will also assist the pianist in his/her espressivo pianissimo line. a
continuous but gentle small vibrato will soften your line and match the
piano's bass line. A few bars later when the cello plays the espressivo
tune, Brahms writes a more chromatic version that is yearning and
heartfelt. (Ex.7) This should still be played in a true pianissimo, but
the sense of restraint should be almost unbearable. A haunting sound
must be produced by a gentle bow pressure that restricts the volume and
focuses the sound just enough to tear delicately at the heart strings.
The vibrato should be continuous and complimentary - like the purest of
sopranos. But only two bars of this bliss is allowed. Brahms tells us
to play dolce again and all the tension dissipates leaving us with the
happiness that started this short bridge section. A long falling
passage with a diminuendo closes the first half of the movement with
the piano alone.
As I send this off to London, I can highly
recommend that you continue working on the rest of this wonderful
sonata in a similar vein and I am only sorry that space and time do not
allow me to continue with you.
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