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To get the recording train rolling, here\u2019s a recording of a lullaby of Brahms, one of my favorites. I made this recording to play with equalization settings, but liked the performance enough to keep it.

It\u2019s a piece Brahms wrote late in life, a lullaby. He included a motto at the top from an old Scottish folk song, which in modern English is roughly:

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Sleep, my child, now sweetly sleep
\nIt grieves my heart to see you weep.

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Brahms is perhaps the most humane composer I know, most especially in these last piano pieces of his. I\u2019ve written about the embrace between the music and the listener. This music\u2019s embrace is tender and compassionate, and in its arms, we are all children, all loved.

\n\n\n\n\n\nJohannes Brahms\n\n\n\n\u25b6\ufe0f\nIntermezzo Op 117 No 1\n\n\nPaul Cantrell, piano\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2b07\ufe0f\nDownload\n\n\n(5:58 / 7.3 M)\n\n\n\n

Thanks go to my good friend Genevi\xe8ve, who introduced me to this piece about five years ago. She played it marvelously, and I\u2019ve wanted to learn it ever since, though it took me until this spring to get around to it. So, finally, here it is. Enjoy.

For those listening closely, a fortuitous thunderclap snuck into the opening. I left it in.