I was under ten when I read a booklet about
St. Anthony of Padua, and I have loved him ever since. The tales about his miracles are naive in the best sense of the word, funny and gracious, they make you approach him like a child, in simplicity and joy.
The name of the saint is also related to a musical miracle: a work of
Brahms is based on an old piece known as
St. Anthony Chorale.
When I heard for the first time the
Variations on a Theme by Haydn I was marveled: the music sounded noble and joyful, it was like an invitation to a universe where any miracle would have been natural.
I heard then this work many times and it kept for me the same freshness as the first time. Here is a 1957 recording of the
Variations with
Philarmonia Orchestra led by
Karajan.
Now: how is this work of
Brahms linked to
St. Anthony? Well, it's not that simple. There are variations on a theme by
Haydn. Here is the first trap:
Brahms was a great admirer of
Haydn and he wanted to use the theme with variations form in order to offer in some kind a dialog between his view on music and the view of his revered model. So when he was presented with a transcription of a
Divertimento in two movements attributed to
Haydn, he immediately took the second part and created the variations on it.
Brahms was convinced that the author of the
Divertimento had been
Haydn; some scholars believe that the friend of
Brahms who came to him with the transcription of the
Divertimento was actually wrong, and the author had been another person, the Austrian-born French composer
Ignaz Pleyel. Up to now nobody has been able to establish beyond any doubt who had been the author of the
Divertimento, and anyway
Brahms was totally unaware of all this: for him the theme had been created by
Haydn and he composed the variations as a homage to the genius of
Haydn.
And this is only the first trap. Here is a another one: nobody knows whether the author of the
Divertimento (be it
Haydn or
Pleyel) created the second part from the scratch or used a more ancient melody:
St. Anthony Chorale! (now, you shouldn't believe that the Chorale, as ancient as it could be, was composed by
St. Anthony, neither in his epoch:
est modus in rebus)
And to make a long history short, here is
St. Anthony Chorale, recorded at the Church in
Steinkjer, Norway. Enjoy!
(Aimez-vous Brahms?)Labels: Brahms, Karajan
