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Article: TWO BIOGRAPHIES SHOW CAPTURING THE LIFE OF BRAHMS WAS NO LULLABY.(Lifestyle)(Review)(Letter to the Editor)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- January 12, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Maybe it was because the big Brahms year just past, with the 100th anniversary of the composer's death, came too soon after the one before, 1983, with the 150th anniversary of his birth, and there just wasn't that much new to say. Whatever the reason, performances yielded few revelations. And now two books offer mostly material that has long been available.
Jan Swafford, a composer and author presents a sprawling portrait of Brahms heavily based on earlier publications to recent studies, all liberally interpreted.
Styra Avins, a cellist and teacher, serves up a rich compilation of Brahms correspondence, mostly the composer's own writings.
The ...