Brahms: Piano Variations – Ali Hireche

With a brief piece condensing the thoughts of Robert Schumann, on the archangel Johannes Brahms, the accomplished young man finds through the trust and admiration ot the Schuman couple his own unstoppable enthusiasm The year 1853 would see the arrival of the third voice, one intertwined with the secret harmony of Schumann and his dear partner Clara, This wonderful meeting came about by chance, at a time when romanticism had already reached its climax, embodied by the intensity of an exploration of which Schumann was one of the most flamboyant representatives. «ln the same way that one chord struck can make another vibrate and thereby render voluble the sharp or deep harmonies of the initial sound, thus leading the related movements to resonate in nature and in the heart: there too, the individuality of man seems to bean inseparable part of a greater whole», wrote painter Friedrich Cams. A poet first and foremost, Schumann immersed himself in the writings of the greatest romantic German authors, of his predecessors such as Goethe and of those who had prepared the fertile ground: Jean Paul Richter, of course, Novalis, Schlegel, Hoffmann, Chamisso (the latter two were haunted by the Doppelganger, the double), the constant presence of the cursed Hölderlin, and Byron’s Manfred. [here is an intertwining of the subject and the object, the poetic fragment, “Dichtungen”, the Kunstchaos, the fragmentary work (brilliantly theorised by Schlegel) which is a constant of oxymorons, the line of tension and dissection of chaotic and contradictory ideas and scattered pieces which the artist tries to unite by searching doggedly for Opposing ideas, to the point where he gets lost. This cruel undertaking of instability goes beyond classicism, but destroys what is only an illusory representation of «an artificial balance». We are already in the era of modernity with its share of strong contradictions and its deconstruction, unmasking confusion in a “new space” where chaos is regarded as the focal point of a quest, the first break which gives rise to the impossible to depict, the hidden. This unlearning, which only makes sense if it does not strive to romanticise blissfully the world rather by revealing it, tempts the birth of a genius. The new era, dear to Hölderlin. It is like reconstructing the world by looking at it turned on its head. «Knowing is a means of returning to non-knowledge», wrote Novalis. It has nothing to do with the calamitous principle of tabula rasa but refers to the rediscovery of memory; in other words the echo of the first song of men. «The expression of the mysterious rise towards chaos in work to reproduce incessant new and wonderful creations, a chaos which under the methodical creation and within itsefl ties itself up in knots.» We can clearly see that romanticism had already foretold its danger, that of its possible failure and in 1853 Schumann had already been subject to jolts of his near end, carried away by the phantoms which they no longer control, the pain abolishing the song that he no could no longer hear. Consumed by its prodigious intensity, Blanchot, in referring to Hölderlin, reminded us very rightly that Hölderlin was prepared to become poetically bankrupt, so that «that in him and by him, the excesses of the divine become moderation, shared moderation, and this destruction, this sefl-effacement through poetry, is what makes the words speak, which is the sign of excellence». Schumann would experience «the dreams of Jean Paul» until his solemn end: «Father where are you ? But I only heard the rain that was falling drop by drop in the abyss, and the eternal storm, which no order controls, was the only reply I received. My eyes were then directed towards the arch of the skies, but all I found there was an empty, dark and bottomless orbit». How can one not call to mind de Nerval, a germanophile, «the dark one, the widowed, the disconsolate», his «Dark Sun» and his «melancholy»? Through the memory of the work by his elder Schumann, Brahms would reveal his enduring genius and search in greater depth in the foundation of modernity already existent in Beethoven’s works, in his last and incredibly prophetic quartets. Judged hastily as a conservative of his time, Brahms had, in actual fact, immense respect for his forefathers: from the great Bach dear to Schumann to Palestrina, Schutz, Mozart and Beethoven. He composed his music under the guidance of one of the greatest representatives of musical tradition, like a heir endeavouring to be worthy of his masters. This attitude was not characteristic of the bards of new music like Wagner and Liszt, who would have no influence on Brahms and were indifferent to the enthusiasm generated by the novelty and, concerning the former, indifferent to the refusal to carry the burden of any heritage, or even assert it.