Michael Houstoun plays Brahms: miniature marvels

Pianist Michael Houstoun: marking his 70th birthday with a recording of Brahms’ intermezzi

Photo credit: Dean Zillwood

Michael Houstoun expresses his love of piano sound from the opening bars of his latest album, lingering gently on the melody and accompanying chords. Houstoun and producer Kenneth Young selected the album’s 18 intermezzi by Johannes Brahms from the composer’s Opus 76, and his Op. 116-119.

These miniatures for solo piano were mostly written near the end of Brahms’ life and show the composer in poetic and reflective moods, his ardours and sorrows under the surface.

Rattle’s new album of the music of Johannes Brahms

“…in poetic and reflective moods”

Houstoun calls the music introspective, suggesting “it fits more easily with an older player’s psyche”. Appropriately, Rattle released the album to mark Houstoun’s recent 70th birthday.

Most were dedicated to pianist and composer Clara Schumann, Brahms’ friend and the undoubted love of his life. As he composed them at the summer resorts of Pörtschach and Bad Ischl, he sent them to her for comments. She wrote in her diary how wonderfully he combined “passion and tenderness in the smallest of spaces.”  

Clara Schumann

“…passion and tenderness in the smallest of spaces…”

Image: National Portrait Gallery, London.

Brahms used the term “intermezzo” as a generic title for these little works, most more meditative than the playful capriccios and assertive rhapsodies with which he originally grouped them.

Houstoun acknowledges it is unusual to separate the intermezzi from other pieces in these sets, but believes each intermezzo carries its own weight. “I feel a compelling beauty and humanity in all of them,” he says.

Performers need have no doubt about Brahms’ musical intentions, with instructions like “grazioso” (“gracefully”), “teneramente” (“tenderly”) and “con grazie ed intimissimo sentiment” (“with grace and the most intimate sentiment”). In the three pieces of Opus 117 a melancholy atmosphere prevails, even a feeling of foreboding in the third Intermezzo in C sharp minor as deep octaves set the scene and continue throughout. Houstoun revels in the expressive and flowing qualities of all the intermezzi, allowing time for the music to breathe and managing transitions and cadences with subtle flexibility.

The last set of the album, from Opus 119, begins with a sense of poignant regret but the final tiny Intermezzo in C major offers a joyous, good-humoured encore for this lovely collection. The album is full of musical delights for the listener, best enjoyed in the thoughtful mood so beautifully expressed by composer and pianist. 

Brahms Complete Intermezzi Michael Houstoun (piano) (Rattle) Purchase here

This album review was first published in the NZ Listener issue 26 November 2022