A coffee with Brahms and Corrado Augias

Tuesday 22nd July at 9.15 pm at the Giardini al CUBO the close-knit couple composed of Corrado Augias and Maestro Guseppe Fausto Modugno , continues the story of the life and works of the great protagonists of the history of European music. The second appointment features Johannes Brahms , the German composer author of some of the most exciting piano pages of the nineteenth century.

Here is my story.

It was an evening like many here in Bologna. A quiet dinner on the terrace enlivened by a light but refreshing wind, all seasoned with the shouting of the boys in the park below chasing a summer that is late in being summer … that evening, after dinner, I had set up a meeting with Mr. . Brahms, I could not possibly be late.
I go out. The place is not that far from my house, I reach it in a moment. I look around in search of this very bearded gentleman with no luck when suddenly I see him sitting at the bottom of the cube gardens here at Unipol. He is having a conversation with the famous journalist Corrado Augias who will introduce him to the Bolognese public who flocked to learn about the music of Maestro Brahms.

I make space among the people and try to get as close as possible to try to listen properly and maybe be able to get some questions. The atmosphere is very quiet and relaxed but there is a lot of people. The chairs are all occupied and there are even people lying on the lawn. An almost surreal scene makes me think … I can get close and finally shake his hand. He remembers promising me a coffee and we take those ten minutes for a chat.
Time to let me tell you how it is in Bologna that it is already time to get up and enjoy tonight’s concert. We say goodbye and it disappears. I realize that I have entered some parallel universe and have discussed with a composer who has now passed the best life in a century … I smile and I too decide to lie down in the grass to let myself be transported into this world of music that I had never heard first.

And this is how I discover that Brahms used to come to Bologna. In particular, the journey of May 1888 is remembered, a particularly important journey for Brahms, which shortly followed – and perhaps it was a kind of liberation – the decision of a double surrender: to give up composing an opera and to get married. Almost symbolically begun on the day of his fifty-fifth birthday, May 7, 1888, that trip had Bologna as its main destination, where an international musical exhibition was announced among the celebrations for the eighth centenary of the University; a more unique than rare opportunity to review an incredible assortment of types and walks of life that a traveler usually does not come across: royal couple in the lead.

Continuing I discover that he was a very meticulous composer, patient and demanding in everything he did and for a good part of his life he had to deal with the giants of the time such as Beethoven and Wagner. He described well in advance, the arrival of the decline of the early twentieth century which would later lead to the two world wars. I was very impressed by the statement “In reality art is the result of a long time, it is not an immediate conception. Inspiration counts but it is only 10% of a composition, all the rest is sweat and dedication.”
While listening to the songs presented, I realize that I have listened to them unconsciously I do not know how many times … and thank goodness that today we have an application like Shazam that allows us to find out whose music we are listening to, otherwise I would always find myself in the same situation: listening to beautiful music without knowing who the composer is.

Why does he make the variations? ( asks Corrado Augias )

It is a meticulous research of brahms that on the variations where it tells us we go in depth on the musical message of the European man. To vary means to take a melody and vary it and bring it totally from another point of view, he starts from there and slowly elaborating, starting from the melody matrix, develops another piece by varying the original one. And, for example, it is quite the opposite of what Mozart did who instead tended to hide the matrix of the melody and leave it as it was.
His motto was: “gentlemen you have to work on things, you have to be patient and you have to know how to wait to enjoy all of creation in the process of building a song.”

The evening continues and is a continuous flow of information. At this I stop taking notes. I want to enjoy the sound and above all this concept on variations unknown to me … even if I play the piano, I have never studied anything of the classical world. Anything. And this is a serious loss that I try to remedy, little by little …

I return home and I sign two things about my meeting with Brahms. The first is my account of the character and the second is the song that struck me most. Here they are, both. Good night…

Brahms had two faces: infinite sweetness and incredible magnificence. His symphonies were mastondotic.