'Reflective Nostalgia': Alex Ross On Grieving For His Mother With Brahms
"Bach is undoubtedly music's supreme companion of extreme distress. … But, on the plane to D.C. that night, Bach would have been too raw, too dire. With Brahms, everything passes through layers of reflection. He is the great poet of the ambiguous, in-between, nameless emotions: ambient unease, pervasive wistfulness, bemused resignation, contained rage, ironic merriment, […]