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This series of articles expands on notes taken by Nicholas Smith in lessons with Roland Berger in 1977.
Next he wanted to hear the Brahms 2nd Symphony excerpts. He explained that the opening solo should be played soloisticly although basically at a piano dynamic. He didn’t want an obvious crescendo into the 3rd bar of the solo as most Americans have been taught. Berger certainly does not agree with the American approach which has a very gradual crescendo to the third bar of the solo and then a decrescendo to pianissimo.
Opening solo, Brahms 2nd Symphony
At this point, he commented on my use of a vibrato and seemed very surprised that I used it a little. He said he had previously thought that Americans never used vibrato and that he sometimes liked to use it for lyric passages. We moved on to the 1st movement coda solo.
Coda Solo from Mvt. 1 of the Brahms 2nd Symphony
He feels the solo should start from “no-where” or as soft/characterless as can be played for the first four bars so that the following set of crescendos and diminuendos in bars 4 – 6 (just a little), bars 9 – 10 (more cresc. with just a little stringendo) then much more crescendo and stringendo until bar 14 where you must play the second and third beat quarters in the slower tempo you will use to the end of the solo. Diminuendo from bar 17 to 20. Then a final crescendo with retard from the quarter note pick-up in bar 20 to bar 21 and a gradual diminuendo with an optional retard to the end of the solo. Breaths are taken in bar 7 before the second beat, the downbeat of bar 11, and a giant breath on the downbeat of bar 14 with a breath after the second beat of bar 18 and a final big breath before the third beat of bar 20 to be able to play to the end of the solo. A retard in the last three bars is optional.
The solo in the 2nd movement he said must be played very straight with no “schmaltz” and he grinned when he emphasized the word schmaltz. The beginning should be very soft like an elegy and without expression. A good breath is taken at the end of bar 3 and then a very small crescendo to bar 5 and back down in measure 6 with no breath before the last eighth note as we usually do. Do a gradual crescendo to the 4th beat of bar 7 and take a big breath before the eighth note on the “and” of the second beat syncopation followed by a very liquid slur on the written octave B flats. Then a decrescendo with the falling line in bars 8 and 9 followed by a smaller crescendo to the second beat of bar 10 and a gradual diminuendo to pianissimo on the last note.
Solo from 2nd Mvt. of the Brahms 2nd Symphony
The series continues next with Brahms 3.
