LDV94

GEOFFROY COUTEAU ∙ ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE METZ 19 Brahms mentions the reasons that prompted him to make such an arrangement in the same letter to Clara: ‘I do believe that I have not sent you anything so diverting for a long time – if your fingers can withstand the pleasure! [ . . .] ‘Now, if one doesn’t have the greatest violinist to hand, then the best way to enjoy it is probably just to let it sound in one’s mind. But the piece tempts one to busy oneself with it in any possible way. After all, one doesn’t always want to hear the music simply sounding in thin air, Joachim is not often here, and one tries it this way or that. But whatever I attempt, orchestra or piano, my enjoyment is invariably spoilt. ‘I find there is only one way I can get a very diminished yet comparable and entirely pure enjoyment out of the work – when I play it with the left hand alone! . . . The similar difficulty, the type of technique, the arpeggios, everything combines to make me feel like a violinist!’ By uniting himself with Bach in spirit, this transcription also enabled Brahms to bring together and unite ‘within himself’ his two dearest friends, Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann. The fidelity and purity with which he respects Bach’s text are matched only by the profundity of this music and the spiritual fervour it exudes – as indeed does his entire oeuvre.