From
Pentimento:
I was thrilled to read this poem today at The Writer's Almanac.
Whether or not Brahms and Clara Schumann had a sexual relationship has
been speculated about for many years -- it is undeniable that they loved
each other profoundly -- but, although they burned most of their
correspondence, the evidence is against it. Brahms biographer Jan
Swafford has suggested that, after the death of Robert Schumann in an
insane asylum in 1856, the younger composer had the opportunity to
propose marriage to Clara, but instead left her disappointed. The two
remained friends, and Clara, one of the greatest pianists of her age,
premiered many of Brahms's works.
The
Intermezzi mentioned by Lisel Mueller are opp. 117, 118, 119. Brahms
called the three op. 117 pieces, which he wrote while Clara was in her
final illness, "cradle-songs of my sorrows." Here is the great German
pianist Wilhelm Kempff playing op. 117, no. 1, with beautiful directness
and simplicity. The piece was inspired by the text of a Scottish poem,
"Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament," and Brahms inscribed in the score an
excerpt from the poem in Herder's German translation. The English words are:
"Sleep soft, my child, now softly sleep;
My heart is woeful to see thee weep."
(Read entire post.)
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