Eager to cultivate his image, Johannes Brahms destroyed much of his early work before it could get out into the world. The composer felt the same about his correspondence. \u201cA person has to be careful about writing letters,\u201d he told a friend. \u201cOne day they get printed!\u201d The man had a point. This enjoyable collection\u2014part of a Letters for the Ages series\u2014assembles missives from musicians that date as far back as the sixth century. Brahms would be happy to learn that none of his writing is in the book. Among the entries, however, is an 1878 letter addressed to him; it\u2019s by Clara Schumann, the fellow composer who had great affection for her friend (the feeling was reciprocal, although the relationship probably remained platonic). The letter is illuminating because it shows how much Schumann advised Brahms on his scores, with detailed (and gentle) suggestions: \u201cIn the C major piece I wish you would use the charming opening phrase again at the repeat, it would not be difficult, would it?\u201d Schumann\u2019s husband, Robert, is also in the anthology. In an 1830 letter to his mother, the future composer expresses his reluctance to pursue a legal career: \u201cMy life has been for twenty years one long struggle between poetry and prose, or, let us say, music and law.\u201d Seems he made the right choice. Dozens of other musicians are included; the range is broad, if focused on Western artists. We hear from Giuseppe Verdi, Woody Guthrie, John Coltrane, Leonard Bernstein, Amy Winehouse, and Nick Cave. In a foreword, David Pickard writes that \u201cdespite their genius, great artists are real people\u201d\u2014even, apparently, when addressing royalty. \u201cMy glorious and dearly beloved King,\u201d Richard Wagner gushes in a letter to Ludwig II of Bavaria. In his short communication, the composer proceeds, like any modern-day fanboy, to use no fewer than 11 exclamation marks.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eager to cultivate his image, Johannes Brahms destroyed much of his early work before it could get out into the world. The composer felt the same about his correspondence. \u201cA person has to be careful about writing letters,\u201d he told a friend. \u201cOne day they get printed!\u201d The man had a point. This enjoyable collection\u2014part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}