I just love how GO speaks in such an approachable and honest manner, seemingly associating himself with all of us strugglers, despite being an absolute towering master! Thank you for your generosity Sir.

This was a truly magical livestream. Thanks to all involved!

"Time in music is not real time, it's psychological time." Thank you for that deep insight.

I heard Mr. Ohlsson perform Brahms' Piano Concerto no 2 in San Antonio. Absolutely Sublime. His Chopin Nocturne encore, reduced me to tears.

This is such a good video. One of the best on the internet I swear.

Garrick Ohlsson has been one of my favorite pianists since I bought his 2-LP Angel recording of the complete Chopin polonaises back in the 70s. What a master -- and what a genuinely nice guy!

Great to see Ohlsson weigh in on all things Brahms. Valuable insight as usual! 👌

That Tonebase live with Garrick Ohlsson was FANTASTIC!!!!

One of the few coherent musicians. Excellent!

Starts at 2:55

I love these discussions

Garrick's comment: "...depending which authentic edition you use..." made me laugh uproariously.

It’s lovely to hear music I learned as a 19 year old used to illustrate this discussion

Currently working on Brahms Intermezzo in A (Op 118 No 2). Beautiful piece.

I am so thankful to Mr. Ohlsson for his participation on this platform. By a strange coincidence, I happened to sit in on a rehearsal where he was playing the Brahms d-minor Concerto in roughly 1994 -- and then I saw the performance later that week through a completely independent channel (I was just a very geeky kid at the time, so in retrospect, I have no idea how any of this transpired). I remember his demeanor in the rehearsal being courteous but confident, and his knowledge of the score plumbing unimagined depths (though I had never heard the piece before, so take that with a mine of salt). At the time, I had no frame of reference, so I didn't consider any of his behavior remarkable. Later on, however, I would discover (to my occasional horror) just how often courtesy is dispensed with, and that soloists' depth of understanding is extraordinarily variable. How lovely it is to see that Ohlsson hasn't changed. If anything, he's just grown more generous with his expertise.

It's great to hear a great pianist talk shop.

Excellent.

Relished every second of this.

Garrick Ohlsson was such a revelation live.

I thoroughly enjoyed this--Garrick Ohlsson is a wonderfully engaging speaker! I wish I could afford Tonebase membership--or KZfaq Premium membership for that matter (sigh!)--but I can't, so I really appreciate these "freebies" from Tonebase. Thank you very much for making it available here for free!

Brahms is my absolute favorite! Perhaps one of the most underplayed composer in competitions and recitals. I hope this interview will inspire more people to enjoy Brahms' music.

💡 It starts at 2:55

In high school I happened to hear on the radio (back when there were classical music stations) the d minor concerto for the first time. I had no idea what to expect. That opening minute left me very cold. Arctic trills for a theme. So stark I honestly didn't know what to make of it. A few years later it became one of my favorites, in the hands of Rubenstein.

Crazy that we’re hanging out in the living room of one of the great pianists.

Would have loved to hear if Garrick thinks that 'dolce' has a different meaning in Brahms' piano music compared with Chopin and Liszt. The A major intermezzo from op 118 is an interesting case in point. The chords are already sweet and the question is whether he's confirming that it should be played sweetly or is there something the pianist should do to add sweetness to the passage?

Brahms did not merely "call on" the Schumanns, he entered into deep, lasting and not easy relationships with both Robert and Clara. Robert Schumann was Brahms' mentor and friend.

Music played "musically" and from the heart is the right interpretation of any piece. What the composer does not notate in the score is left open for the performer to create. One could even argue that despite the actual notation in the score, a performer can take liberties that when done "musically" can sound satisfying and correct. Of course, one may ask what the word "musically" means and I can only say that those sensitive to such a concept know what it is when they hear it. The idea that music is written in stone is a fallacy. Music lives in performance and a composer's original concept when he placed the notes on paper, like any written document, comes alive only when processed through living, thinking, feeling human beings.

My favorite Brahms piano works are the first concerto, the Handel Variations, and the piano quintet.

i luv ben luade uwuwu

Brahms is hard! But I love his sound: like sand in the wind…

Thanks a lot for this lecture. I especially liked the unpretentious kindness of Mr. Ohlsson. It made me think of my professors at the conservatory who where more like dictatorial divas.

The point about webern is great.

Sesquialtera!

Heard Ohlsson's Montreal recitals of Brahms piano music: just extraordinary especially both Paganini Variations 2 Books and the opus 76 to 119 smaller pieces called Intermezzis. The man is so cultured, the size of a Star quarterback and a refined mind of the utmost kind, I d say "A Man à la Claudio Arrau"...knowledgeable, moving, elegant, I'd say we only have one pianist in Canada of this stature, perhaps (no not Gould at all), but Louis Lortie. But Ohlsson still superior to him.

15:40. Actually Schumann was nearly 23 years older than Brahms

I assume that Mr. Ohlsson doesn't like all of Brahms equally. Can we be let on to which of the piano music he really likes and which he doesn't care for?

I misread Ohlsson as Ohlesson and realized I wasn’t entirely wrong.

I know it’s Brahms when I sense a black indigo chocolate brown cloud around me.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I really appreciate Garrick Ohlsson's contribution and teaching points in this discussion. One point to note: when a person is teaching, lecturing or simply talking about a serious subject, why does there appear to be the need (and this is true especially of Americans) to talk fast, to swallow syllables, to omit words, to not enunciate properly and to basically make the listeners feel as though we were all part of some big wild, jerky, adrenaline-fuelled language rodeo? This is not a word race to spill out as many half-born sounds as possible. It's utterly off-putting and also not respectful to those who are listening and who are here to understand and reflect. Getting the tempo right and practising the soft handling of the keys is as important in communication as it is in music.

I get the impression most pianists are afraid of tackling much of Brahms' piano music because frankly it is just too difficult for them. In so many piano competitions we see "up and coming" pianists depending on a diet of Chopin and water. Characteristics of Brahms: nobility, high seriousness, lots going on at the same time appeals to the intellect as well as the emotions like Bach

Tiffany Poon is a great Brahms interpreter

Brahms is a "major dork", "huge nerd"??

I give you an 'A' for the idea and a 'C-' on the execution. A very scattered an un-insightful interview ruined by too many unrelated and irrelevant questions from the audience and an idiot unable to put the correct music on the screen or refrain from annotating and highlighting the wrong portions of the score. Will watch if you try again; I suggest letting Garrick Ohlsson just talk by himself for an hour and a half.