brahms string quartets

yes i finally went out and bought the brahms i've been meaning to get for ages. a recording of the string quartets and piano quintet by the emerson string quartet. listening to brahms is like... i don't know. catching a glimpse of the eternal and infinite. it's breathtaking, and it's quite angsty. not in a teenage spots way; in the way of a man who's lived half his life and has grown a finely cultivated rage at injustice and inhumanity.

hrm. i'm only on the second string quartet so i'm not qualified to talk about the others yet, but the first quartet is pretty good. i'm sure i'll pick up a lot more facets of it on repeated hearings. there's a fascinating quality about it; it's driving rage (the word is rage, i don't know how else to put it) and yet it's scintillating, precisely directed, and it has a certain depth and quality about it. i think it boils down to the cello part - even though you hear it you don't actually listen to it (note the difference), and so it touches a level deeper than your consciousness. it awakens gut feelings of fear, anger, joy...

i'm raving now. i'll stop and do this again when my thoughts are clearer