LDV64.5

18 BRAHMS_TRIOS OP.8, 87, 101 & 114 In comparisonwithwhat is perhaps themost intense subjectivity of the Romantic era, that of Schumann, to whom he was close, Brahms seems to us to embody a kind of objective Romanticism, which appears, thanks to the solid bulwarks of form, to stem the torrents of music that invaded him – and might otherwise have overwhelmed him. Even in the Ballades for piano op.10, so intense, so powerful in their evocative force, Brahms uses traditional ternary form – the miracle is that he was capable of conjuring up so expressive a world in so modest a framework. Form at once envelops and reassures, and the whole art of Brahms lies in that unconscious twofold gesture – thanks to which so many lullabies , conscious or not, are hidden throughout his works (‘Your soul is a child I would like to cradle’, 2 wrote Apollinaire). It is this, too, that accounts for his gentleness, his generous tenderness, those qualities he offers us in abundance in his music 2. Votre âme est une enfant que je voudrais bercer.