|
|
Article: Brahms composed his life from scores of controversy
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- March 16, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
No symphony orchestra season anywhere passes without Brahms. The
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is about to embark on six consecutive
concerts of Brahms and nothing but. At least eight museums in Germany
and Austria are dedicated to him.
If classical music were a baseball strike zone, Johannes Brahms
would be belt-high and in the middle of the plate.
It wasn't always so.
During his lifetime (1833- '97), Brahms stood at one pole of a
bitter ideological split in German music.
Opposed, among others, were critics Richard Pohl and George
Bernard Shaw and composers Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss and Richard
Wagner. They stood ready to blow up the classical traditions and in
favor of the most radical ...