Conducting Brahms

With two volumes of reflections on conducting the orchestral music of Beethoven already published, Norman Del Mar now embarks on the wider repertoire, beginning with Brahms, whose output forms the backbone of serious music study and concert programmes. Del Mar's own interpretations of Brahms have been hailed as sincere and thoughtful, and it is these attributes, together with Del Mar's strong sense of the music's architecture, which will be of value to interpreters. Del Mar writes on the four Symphonies, the Concertos, the Haydn Variations, and the Overtures and Serenades, offering descriptions of conducting styles and thoughts on orchestral bowing and rehearsal psychology. The book concludes by examining the background and text of a major choral work, this time the German Requiem.