Why was Brahms So Wistful? Trufflemusik’s New Classical Release Reimagines the "Relentless Magnetic North of Melancholy" by Ashley Jude Collie

Deep in the heart of Hollywood, rock is usually rolling around EastWest Studios—the famous venue where everyone from The Beach Boys to U2, Iggy Pop, AC/DC and Metallica, have recorded, including Lady Gaga on the 2019 Oscar-winning Best Song “Shallow” from A Star is Born. 

So, it’s almost counter intuitive to imagine an emotionally wistful album called “A Sweet of Brahms” being recorded there. In fact, pianist Liz Myers, of the entertaining chamber music duo, Trufflemusik, charmingly admits, “Recording classical music is a fine art but not a lot of time is spent recording such music these days, I heard they had a nine-foot Bechstein concert grand at EastWest, one of the best pianos in town to record with. Bechstein is a huge piano, with a gigantic bass section, and because it has a very resonant sound, it’d been used for rock recordings. And, it was located in a pretty live room. So, I was all in. Moreover, my Trufflemusik partner and extraordinary cellist Paula Hochhalter has done over a hundred sessions there, including ‘plenty of rock and roll’ sessions.”

AWARD-WINNING DUO

While classically trained, Trufflemusik’s two players are widely known for their award-winning work in Hollywood as performers, composers and arrangers, an experience that has helped add power and impact to their more classical work. So, when the duo, which had previously recorded “A Sweet of Beethoven,” were inspired to consider Brahms, they were looking at recording the master, like we’ve never heard him before, in a heretofore rock and roll studio.

Above all, the nine pieces from Brahms’ Opus 117 and 118 piano compositions come from a special time in the German composer’s life. As a teen he played gigs in Hamburg’s brothels and became a bon vivant and prankster, but as he aged he may’ve reflected on his lifelong bachelor ways, perhaps speculating too late about how his life with his mentor and muse Clara Schumann might’ve developed. Indeed, these later pieces are full of romantic notions, especially Opus 118 No. 2, that has been called a love song to Clara. 

As a result, Trufflemusik sought to capture those emotions with Hochhalter suggesting, “Brahms was pretty deep, he really wore his heart on his sleeve. We tried to capture his general wistfulness, looking at the end of his life, as one does, and the many emotions that come to the fore. I told Liz, I think No. 2 is the most beautiful piece ever written, just so romantic.” There’s also the speculation that the prankster, who could write these beautiful romantic yearnings, maybe couldn’t live them himself, but that’s for others to conjecture.