I am obsessed with this piece. I could listen to it on an infinite loop and never get tired of it. Whenever I get stressed out, angry, or in any way emotionally unstable, I can just play this and immediately calm down. I close my eyes and let the music play. It flows throughout my body, soaking every cell. With my closed eyes, I can't see. I can't think. I can't hear anything but the soaring melodies. Nothing else matters or even exists when I'm enveloped in the sound.
This piece alone makes my extremely jealous of synesthetes who can see sounds. When I try to imagine what I would see, it would be the lines of the cello, violin, and piano winding and blending together to paint a beautiful picture of the Alps peaking behind lake surrounded by green trees in Germany (Brahms is German and I always associate his music with Germany).
While looking for an acceptable recording to post, I heard a myriad of different interpretations. iTunes alone has over 30 recordings of this movement to choose from. I liked something different about each one. From something as simple as tempo or recording quality, to specifics like the phrasing, dynamic contrast, or the cellist's vibrato. It blew my mind on how a piece that appears on the paper the same to everyone, can be played and sound so differently from group to group. In the end, I still found that I prefer the first recording that my friend burned on a CD for me. There's something special and unique about listening to a piece for the first time and having no idea to expect. With all of the recordings I listened to, I found myself comparing them to the first one. The same notes and rhythms are heard and played differently by each person, each time they're played, and most likely sound a little different to everyone. That's the amazing thing about music- it's universal and at the same time, unique.
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