Brahms Intermezzo 117.1

To get the recording train rolling, here’s a recording of a lullaby of Brahms, one of my favorites. I made this recording to play with equalization settings, but liked the performance enough to keep it. It’s a piece Brahms wrote late in life, a lullaby. He included a motto at the top from an old Scottish folk song, which in modern English is roughly: Sleep, my child, now sweetly sleep It grieves my heart to see you weep. Brahms is perhaps the most humane composer I know, most especially in these last piano pieces of his. I’ve written about the embrace between the music and the listener. This music’s embrace is tender and compassionate, and in its arms, we are all children, all loved. Johannes Brahms ▶️ Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1 Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1 (5:58 / 7.3 M) Thanks go to my good friend Geneviève, who introduced me to this piece about five years ago. She played it marvelously, and I’ve wanted to learn it ever since, though it took me until this spring to get around to it. So, finally, here it is. Enjoy. For those listening closely, a fortuitous thunderclap snuck into the opening. I left it in.