Brahms – Piano Quartet in C minor, op 60

The trouble with Brahms or, more accurately, the trouble with me when it comes to Brahms, is that I have never yet been able to listen to him as Brahms, as opposed to as a composer who sounds a bit like Beethoven.

The first time I listened to this, I just wanted to get it over with and listen to something else. I just registered it as an agreeable German Romantic piece, and that was that. But when I got to the final movement I found myself enjoying it more and more, and I had to listen to it again. So I did, and I really liked it. But here’s the thing (as Adrian Monk says). I still don’t think I like it purely as Brahms, I like it because bits of it sound (to me) like Beethoven and Schubert, albeit good Beethoven and Schubert. So I need to make more progress before I really manage to hear Brahms as Brahms.

But perhaps if Brahms really, really wanted to be heard on his own terms he shouldn’t have done things like the (apparently) obvious reference in the final movement to the rhythm in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.