英文導聆 + 全本演出
August 05, 2025
循序往下移讀導聆稿, 仔細聽, 再聽完全曲, 生字等聽完全曲再去查, 專心聽, 不要做其他的事, 就好像在讀一本書, 即使是熟悉的曲子, 你會得到 I've finally got it 我終於聽懂了的快樂...
0:12- Johannes Brahms was not a university man.
•0:14He never attended university, but in 1879,
•0:18when he was 46, he was offered a doctorate in philosophy
•0:22from the University of Breslau.
•0:24He accepted, he was anxious to be acknowledged
•0:29in that academic way.
•0:31But part of the deal was he had to write a piece.
•0:34In the 19th century, when people were given
•0:36honorary degrees, they had to do something.
•0:39Nowadays, you get an honorary degree,
•0:40it's usually because you have done things,
•0:42you have accomplished a certain amount,
•0:44you have a certain fame, and they say,
•0:45we'd like to honor you by giving you a degree.
•0:48It's rare that anyone asks you to do anything.
•0:51When Richard Strauss was given an honorary degree,
•0:56he was required to write a piece and he wrote a piece
•0:58called Tally Affair.
•1:00It's a remarkable piece but the thing about the piece
•1:03is it takes 20 minutes, but it calls for 200 people
•1:09to be on the stage, huge brass, a tenor solo, a huge chorus.
•1:13I mean, what he did was he just took every possible
•1:15person he could find in Heidelberg and put them on the stage
•1:20for his, to get his honorary degree.
•1:23Brahms did something, I mean, not similar
•1:26but in a way, his largest orchestra, three trumpets,
•1:30not two trumpets, now that's, I think the only time
•1:33he ever used three trumpets.
•1:35Of course, normal three trombones, tuba,
•1:37used a piccolo and a contrabassoon,
•1:39which he did quite often, and percussion.
•1:41Brahms described it as a cheerful potpourri
•1:45of student songs a la Suppe.
•1:48That refers to Franz von Suppe who was a wonderful composer
•1:52of operettas and overtures.
•1:55In fact, he uses four student songs
•1:59as the basis for the whole work.
•2:01The academic festival overture begins in a very
•2:04subtle, quiet way, and what's interesting to me, of course,
•2:07is that not only are the strings playing.
•2:10(vocalizing)
•2:12But you have the percussion joined in right away.
•2:15How unusual.
•2:17I'm trying to remember if I can think of an example
•2:20in Brahms or any composer of that period
•2:23where they begin a piece using the percussion
•2:26right at the beginning like that,
•2:27and it adds a certain air of expectation.
•2:32(orchestra music)
•2:50When the woodwinds come in, there is a certain dark hue,
•2:55a dark color, again of expectation, where is this leading?
•3:11Finally, we get the first choral tune,
•3:14played by the violas and then that melody
•3:17extended by the horn.
•3:47This leads back to the initial material again
•3:51and all of a sudden, it builds and it becomes exuberant.
•3:55So finally you have something that,
•3:57it's loud and exciting and then immediately,
•4:01he brings you back to this ambiguous pianissimo.
•4:27The woodwind's playing something very simple
•4:30and the string's playing a little bit late every time,
•4:33they're never together, and when you hear music
•4:36where no one's ever together, you either think
•4:38that they're making a mistake
•4:39and they just can't play together or what's going on here?
•4:44Beethoven did it numerous times,
•4:47but here Brahms does it and it gives you this feeling of,
•4:50what's gonna happen next?
•4:53(orchestra music)
•5:02And then finally we get the second school tune
•5:06played by a brass choral of horns and trumpets.
•5:32This brass choral leads to another
•5:37wonderful climactic moment.
•6:17We repeat what we heard at the beginning
•6:20and then the violins come in with another beautiful tune
•6:24and again, it's, I don't know, in some ways,
•6:29this is like all the great Brahms done in 10 minutes
•6:32because it has this beautiful tune,
•6:34reminiscent a little bit of the Fourth Symphony
•6:36and then the woodwinds answer it, it's just,
•6:40and then it expands and becomes luscious
•6:43and has beautiful harmonies and suspensions.
•6:47It's just absolutely exquisite.
•7:22It is reminiscent of so much of Brahm,
•7:24you remember he was now in his mid-40s.
•7:27By then, he, yes, hadn't written all those symphonies
•7:31but he had the ability to do it
•7:33and you can see it all here.
•7:34Finally, you get the jovial theme,
•7:38now this is the third of the school themes
•7:41played by the two bassoons.
•7:43What's also interesting about this is that
•7:46the violas and cellos are accompanying the two bassoons
•7:49but never on the beat, you'll hear the bassoons.
•7:53(vocalizing)
•7:55And the violas all go.
•7:57(vocalizing)
•8:01It just makes it a little funnier.
•8:02And then when finally the violins and violas come in,
•8:05they're playing again, pizzicato,
•8:07you have this incredible imagination of this.
•8:10What to do, you have a simple tune,
•8:12how to make it interesting, how to make it fascinating.
•8:15(orchestra music)
•8:28And then, all of a sudden, explosion,
•8:33and the violins are in and the same tune is played forte,
•8:37loudly, and a little variety, big third horn solo,
•8:42a triplet solo, it's just marvelous.
•8:46(orchestra music)
•8:58Eventually the same jovial tune is played by the brass
•9:01as a real brass fanfare, while the strings now
•9:05are playing those offbeats, but they're playing them
•9:08aggressively and loudly.
•9:53This leads eventually to the recapitulation
•9:56of all the early material and then finally
•9:59the great melody, the great tune of all.
•10:05(speaking in foreign language)
•10:07Played by the brass, and when we listen to this,
•10:10pay special attention to the wonderful string writing
•10:16'cause here with the brass and the woodwinds
•10:17and they were playing this great melody,
•10:20the violins and violas are playing fast notes,
•10:24furiously with what we call syncopation,
•10:26so they're not on the beat but rather
•10:28it gives the feeling of being slightly off
•10:31and then when those syncopations resolve to being on
•10:35the beat, it gives you a feeling of having arrived.
•10:45Then it switches and has the violins play the melody
•10:48and the cello bass playing the accompaniment
•10:50and famous triangle, percussion, the brass,
•10:55and it ends in a very, very exciting way.
•11:19In 10 minutes, you get a lot of what Brahms is
•11:23and who Brahms is.
•11:24Of course, he always underplayed the importance
•11:27and the grandeur of his music, but this one
•11:30is among the most beautiful, among the most charming
•11:36and very optimistically moving pieces in all of Brahms,
•11:42an overture that these days is rarely played
•11:46and yet, for me, it's a great, great gesture
•11:49by one of the great geniuses.
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