Musical Allusions in Brahms Scherzo, F-A-E Sonata
There is something about allusions in classical music that fascinates me. For me, I enjoy discovering similar rhythmic, thematic, motivic, and melodic ideas from one piece to another. The way I see it, these type of indirect references were a composer's way of showing admiration and respect to their fellow colleagues. Unlike some other composers living around his time, Brahms was surprisingly open, for the most part, about his allusions. Even then, however, he still faced tre
Ethereal Beauty in Brahms Violin Sonatas
Today, I want to share with you an exciting project that I am working on in the spring. I will be performing the complete violin and piano sonatas of Johannes Brahms with Lin He. I've played this cycle once before several years ago, so it will be nice to do it again. I love this particular set because it demonstrates the composer's amazing sense of maturity and lyricism in both instruments, which both parts join forces as equal partners. Although there are three published vio
Music and Travel: Sharing My Two Passions
One of the perks of being a performing musician is having the opportunity to travel and visit various places. For me, I love finding parallels between music and travel. Earlier last summer, I wrote a post about an amazing vacation spot in Italy. I just returned from a long trekking adventure in the Patagonia mountains of Argentina and Chile. It was especially wonderful because it was the first time in a while where I traveled and not had to worry about performing on that same
