A perfect afternoon in Oslo

Johannes Brahms: Sonatas for Viola and Piano, Op. 120; Lars Anders Tomter, viola; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

I found this recording of Sonatas for Piano and Viola (or Clarinet) by Johannes Brahms at a CD store in Stockholm, Sweden, in August of 1993. But I didn’t have time to listen to it until I got to Oslo, three days later.

Both of the artists featured on this album come from Norway. Being Norwegian, myself, I almost felt it imperative, not only for my sake, but for the sake of millions of other Norwegian-Americans who would probably never have the opportunity to visit the land of their fathers and mothers – the Holy Land to the North - to listen to a CD of Norwegians while actually visiting Norwegia. When we finally arrived in Oslo, and as soon as the Crown Odyssey passengers had disembarked for their excursions, I headed for the park.

I keep the word “perfect” in a gleaming silver box, lined inside with red velvet, in the back of my sock drawer, under the socks that I never wear because I wash my others before I need to wear those. I almost never take it out. That Sunday in the park in Oslo was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, mildly breezy, about sixty-five degrees, and every single Oslosian came out to the park for a stroll, a run, a round of Frisbee or a rendezvous with the sun.

I grabbed myself a rumpful of bench underneath an evergreen tree on the outskirts of Frogner Park, slapped some Norwegian Brahms inside my Sony Discman, and allowed these two native sons to compound the perfect with the sublime. At times like these, I am reminded that the great music masters composed beyond consideration of performance venue.

They didn’t write music in order to embellish carpeted cinder blocks with calculated acoustics. Herr Brahms and his musical “brothers” heard music in their heads, that they wanted in your head, but not just for the amount of time that it takes to perform it. They wanted their music to abide in your soul, in your biological iPod, so that you could – so that you can - mentally call it up while you’re hanging out laundry, going to market, preparing dinner, looking at clouds, wandering through a meadow, gazing at the moon or loitering in a park.

Music is for people, not for buildings. What does it do for you?

Music provides me with a sixth sense; a framework from which I can recall people, places, and events, ordinary and monumental.

A few weeks before visiting Oslo on that awesome Sunday afternoon, I happened upon a Saturday afternoon concert where a chamber orchestra and two trumpet players were performing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets in C Major on a floating pontoon stage in the harbour a few yards off shore in Copenhagen, Denmark. The performance was marvelous. Do you know why I remember it? Upon completion of their performance and after acknowledgement of their applause, they tossed their trumpets to a couple of violinists, quickly doffed their jackets and plunged into the water. Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!

Credits: To the builders of that bench in Frogner Park in Oslo. That might have been the crowning element that brought perfection to a happening scene. Anyway, it showed up when I needed it. Thank you.