USM School of Music opens season with all-Brahms concert


“If there was only one composer I could have with me on a deserted island, I’d take Brahms,” says Robert Lehmann.

A conductor, violinist, and professor of music in the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine, Lehmann gets the chance to showcase two most beloved works by his favorite composer during the School of Music’s opening concert, “Brahms and His Three Muses,” on Friday, September 25, 2009.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Corthell Concert Hall on the USM Gorham campus. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for seniors and USM employees, and $5 for students. For reservations call 780-5555. This evening is sponsored by the USM Music Advisory Board.

Two substantial works make up the evening’s program – Brahms’ “Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40; and his String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36. Both are infused with the feminine mystique and are connected to three influential women in his life – his mother Christiane; his almost-bride, Agathe von Siebold; and his mentor and friend, Clara Schumann.

Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in the northern German city of Hamburg. His father was a double bass player with the Hamburg opera, and although the family had very little money, Johannes studied the piano from the age of seven and theory and composition from 13. Robert Schumann, the editor of the influential “Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik,” hailed the young composer as a genius and anointed him as the future of German music (no pressure!). After an influential and productive career he died on April 3, 1897 of liver cancer.

The “Horn Trio” was Brahms’ heartfelt reaction to his beloved mother Christiane’s death. (Her death in 1865 would also become the catalyst for the composition of the German Requiem, particularly the beautiful 5th movement.) For horn players, the Trio represents the most important and substantial piece of chamber music written for horn in the nineteenth century. Brahms did not fully embrace the modern valved horn, and specified that the older 'Waldhorn' or natural horn be used, whose darker and more somber sonority more accurately captured the composer's mood and feelings regarding his mother's recent death. Joining Lehmann in the performance are John Boden, principal horn of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Chiharu Naruse, piano.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with John who is one of the top horn players in the country – and he’s right here in our back yard,” notes Lehmann. Because of Boden’s extensive experience with natural, or un-valved horn, he can bring a greater insight and understanding to this modern horn rendition.

Joining Lehmann for the “String Sextet” are violinist Ferdinand Liva; violists Kimberly Lehmann and Julia Adams; and cellists Jim Kennedy and Scott Harris. Lehmann wants to help develop the community of string players in the region and has invited players who represent two of the major string quartets in Maine – the Portland String Quartet (Adams) and the DaPonte String Quartet (Liva) – as well as members of his own Meliora String Quartet (Lehmanns) and PSO colleagues (Kennedy).

“What drew me to stringed instruments as a youngster was their sound,” says Lehmann, “and multiply that by six (in the Sextet) … it’s like diving head first into a chocolate cake! It’s a rich sound like no other – with apologies to my other musical colleagues!”

Brahms wrote the G Major Sextet in an attempt to get over his failed romance with Agathe von Siebold, a woman he was briefly engaged to, who he finally rejected. A series of pitches in the first movement nearly spell out A-G-A-D-H-E (H being B-natural in German spelling and which forms a diphthong of sorts with the D). Her “name” is called out often, almost as a way to dispel his sense of loss and quilt.

Clara Schumann was many things to Brahms -- a muse, a friend, and composer colleague. She was the wife of Brahms’ mentor, Robert Schumann, and perhaps embodied for Brahms, the ideal woman – a mixture of the maternal, the feminine, the intellectual, and the spiritual. Brahms corresponded frequently with Clara Schumann regarding the neo-Baroque third movement of this piece, a set of variations, and also made a two-piano arrangement of the similar variation movement of his equally gorgeous first Sextet as a birthday present for her.

“Brahms developed a deeply personal relationship with Clara Schumann, a truly remarkable woman who was among the finest pianists of her day, a composer of considerable stature, and who became a critic, confidant, and mother figure to Brahms,” writes Lehmann in his program notes. “Johannes and Clara became interdependent as Robert Schumann’s mental health declined, and in the years surrounding his hospitalization and death, found solace and strength in one another. Whether anything developed in terms of a physical relationship has been the subject of great speculation. Clara loved her husband dearly, however one must remember that, before he began to resemble a hedgehog, Brahms was quite handsome. Brahms for his part may never have been able to think of Clara as anything but his muse and his mentor’s wife. If they made love, it was undoubtedly through their music.”

Lehmann Biography

Robert Lehmann, of Scarborough, is Associate Professor of Music, Director of String Studies and Orchestral Activities at the USM School of Music. At USM he conducts both the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra and the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Artist Faculty in Violin and Viola. Dr. Lehmann is also Music Director of the Portland Chamber Orchestra, the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra and the White Mountain Bach Festival. He holds degrees in Violin Performance from the University of the Pacific, the Eastman School and Boston University and has been a fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Festival and at the Conductors Institute at Bard College. Dr. Lehmann has concertized as violinist and conductor, in his native Mexico, throughout the US, Puerto Rico and in Europe and Ukraine. He has been of frequent guest conductor of with the Portland Symphony and has conducted All State and Festival Orchestras in Maine, California, Massachusetts and Hawaii. Dr. Lehmann was a recipient of the 2007 USM Faculty Senate Award for Scholarship. Prior to his appointment at USM, he was Music Director of the Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard, and on the conducting staff of the Greater Boston Youth Symphonies and the Empire State Youth Orchestras. He is first violinist of the Meliora Quartet and concertmaster of the PORTOpera, he has been a member of the EOS Ensemble and Boston Philharmonic. He is in demand as a performer, conductor, teacher and adjudicator and is listed in Who's Who in American Music.