Musical catharsis
Finding comfort in Brahms Since falling ill, Vogt remarked, he could not predict exactly how the emotional side of music would strike him. ‘Sometimes it’s absolutely fine,’ he said. ‘I do my work, I’m immersed in music and I forget about everything. And then something, perhaps just one melodic line, can suddenly move me so much that I burst into tears.’
He found perhaps the greatest solace in the music of Brahms (above). When feeling well enough, Vogt would go to the hospital library and play on its upright piano some of the Op. 116 pieces, which he was learning for the first time. ‘Then at my festival, Spannungen, they played the Brahms G major String Sextet. The opening melody is in G major, but straight away tainted with darkness. That was one of those moments that hit me so quickly that I couldn’t get out of my tears for the rest of the piece.
‘But it’s also cathartic. The effect of the music becomes even stronger and more direct. In Brahms there’s a basic melancholy, but one that can still see all the glory of life, all the love and the beauty also within the melancholy. These things are very close to me.
‘It can seem like the great composers knew everything. They know all about love and they know everything about death. It’s nice to give yourself over to them, to have them take you by the hand and guide you through.’