Late Idyll

Reviews / Votes

Late Idyll is not only a superlative study of Brahms but an indispensable study of nineteenth-century genre. -- Charles Rosen [Late Idyll] should be required reading, not only for listeners and students but for conductors as well...In Brinkmann's hands, [Brahms's Second Symphony] takes its rightful place in intellectual and social history. -- Leon Botstein * Times Literary Supplement * Mr. Brinkmann's monograph is a loving look at Brahms as exemplar of the melancholic temperament...[His book is] technical, but makes reasonable leaps from technical observations to aesthetic claims. That may be the only way to understand music in words: Immerse oneself in it, learn its jargon and come out the other side hearing connections previously only guessed at. -- Kenneth LaFave * Washington Times * Brinkmann guides the reader carefully through the entire composition, pausing occasionally to examine a detail here and there. He attractively combines analytical, hermeneutic, biographical, and historical material, relating the symphony to Brahm's other works and to those of his contemporaries and predecessors (particularly Beethoven), and making frequent reference to the cultural milieu of late 19th century Europe. * Choice * Reinhold Brinkmann's Late Idyll is that rare book by a musicologist that anyone seriously interested in Brahms--or for that matter in music--can read with a good deal of pleasure, to say nothing of profit. It combines a thoroughgoing analysis of Brahms's Second Symphony (which Brinkmann shows is by no means so cheerful as it is usually touted to be) with a searching exploration of cultural and psychological themes. A masterly work. -- Peter Gay