Do You Like Brahms? (Initial Thoughts)

Do You Like Brahms? is a romance drama with a heavy emphasis on music as its central concept and is another drama that finished airing about a month ago, having been on my watch-list for some time. Starring Park Eun-bin (Hello, My Twenties!, Hot Stove League) as female lead CHAE SONG-AH and Kim Min-jae (Hit the Top, Tempted) as male lead PARK JOON-YOUNG, this drama focuses on classical music students and performers as they journey through the melodious world around them, finding themselves and love along the way. I was initially unsure about starting this series, especially since I don't appreciate classical music but having had a good time watching other music-related dramas (I Wanna Hear Your Song), I decided to go in with an open mind. 

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

Episode 1 focuses on setting the groundwork for the relationships that will be built as well as giving us a slight insight into our leads' past relationships. We are introduced to Song-ah, a business graduate who's currently a final year student at Seoryeong University's music department and she dreams of being a professional violinist. Unfortunately, she's somewhat ostracised in the professional orchestra that she's recently become a member of (even getting removed from her first stage performance by the conductor) and her family is dismissive about her desire to be a professional violinist, especially since she's already almost 30 years old. Thankfully, she's not alone as she has the support of her close friends, third leads KANG MIN-SUNG [Bae Da-bin (Gangnam Beauty, Arthdal Chronicles)] and YOON DONG-YOON [Lee You-jin (Familiar Wife, Be Melodramatic)]. Min-sung and Dong-yoon were dating at some point but have since broken up, with the former still recovering from the breakup while the latter hasn't contacted his ex at all. Very interestingly, it seems that Song-ah is smitten with Dong-yoon, being super happy to find out he's making an impromptu return to Korea after a competition overseas and also when she finally sees him again at the airport. The relationships among this trio is pivotal to a key concept that's mentioned at the end of the episode but we'll get to that later. 

Our male lead Joon-young is a character shrouded in mystery and we only know that he's an elite pianist and former Seoryeong music graduate. However, we do get hints that his right hand is somehow injured, preventing him from playing at the level he once was at (or at least that's my theory). We find out that much like Song-ah, he's also part of a trio of close friends, namely with second leads HAN  HYUN-HO [Kim Sung-cheol (Prison Playbook, To. Jenny)] and LEE JUNG-KYUNG [Park Ji-hyun (Your Honor, My Secret Terrius)]. While he seems to be super close to Hyun-ho, who's returning to Korea on the same day as Dong-yoon (this gets important later), there's some underlying tension between him and Jung-kyung, as he looks uncomfortable when her name is mentioned around him and we see in a flashback sequence that at the afterparty of his New York performance, a tearful Jung-kyung ends up kissing Joon-young, much to his utter surprise. That memory seems to continuously frustrate him and we'll find out very shortly why. Apart from this, it seems that he might have some trouble at home, as his mother approaches him after a performance to ask about money (not in like a money-grabbing kind of way, don't get me wrong) and she also tells him his father is doing better. Maybe his family has money problems and/or his father is ill. 

Of course, while Song-ah and Joon-young initially start out as being aware of each other's presence as he was part of what would've been her first proper orchestra performance, they become closer after the she becomes a planning intern at Kyunghoo Cultural Foundation, where Joon-young works. Near the end of the episode, they end up meeting at the airport while waiting to pick up their friends, and they strike up a conversation about Song-ah's planning proposal. As she brings up pieces she used (namely by the titular Brahms, Schumann and Clara), we get a strong negative reaction from Joon-young, who perceives the theme of the pieces as "unattainable love", whereas Song-ah tells him that she was going for the "friendship between three people". She asks him a question that becomes the title of this drama, "do you like Brahms?", to which he says no and let me tell you that question is perfect. The episode comes to an end when their friends meet them and while Song-ah is happy to see Dong-yoon, Joon-young's face stiffens as he sees both Hyun-ho and Jung-kyung arrive, with the two of them clearly in a relationship. 

I am absolutely astounded by the themes in this first episode. I thought I would be put off by the classical music aspect of this drama but let me tell you that hasn't happened yet. So far, the whole episode has revolved around the (sort of) tragic love story of Brahms, Schumann and Clara. It's explained briefly in the episode but I did my own research to get a better understanding. As it turns out, Clara Wieck and her spouse Robert Schumann are both musicians, and they worked very closely together with their friend Johannes Brahms. Brahms and Clara's relationship has often been interpreted as somewhere between friendship and love BUT in the context of the drama, it was interpreted purely as love (just so that the drama gets pushed forward a bit). 

We can then relate this classical trio to our separate groups of Song-ah, Min-sung and Dong-yoon, as well as Joon-young, Hyun-ho and Jung-kyung. Both trios are super close friends within their group, much like the classical European musicians but regrettably, their relationship is also as twisted, if you will. With Song-ah's group, it's a role reversal, wherein we can liken Min-sung and Dong-yoon to Schumann and Clara, with Song-ah being Brahms. While it's not super clear and I can't actually confirm it, we can sort of guess that Song-ah has feelings for Dong-yoon beyond just friendship, even dolling herself up a little bit with lipstick when she picks him up from the airport. That being said, her friendship with Min-sung is still very strong and since the latter is unaware of her ex's return, Song-ah feels guilty about being so happy to see Dong-yoon again and removes her lipstick. To her, friendship is probably more important than love, which is why she saw the "friendship" aspect of her proposal. 

In Joon-young's case, it's much more similar to the actual Brahms situation, with Joon-young obviously being Brahms while Hyun-ho and Jung-kyung are Schumann and Clara. Much like with Song-ah's trio, this trio are super close friends but Joon-young is obviously in love with Jung-kyung and while we aren't sure of this yet, she might be in love with him too. Of course, we now know that Hyun-ho and Jung-kyung are dating, and our hero doesn't seem too happy about that. Joon-young's feelings of love probably override his friendship ties and he sees Song-ah's proposal as representing "unattainable love", much like how he can't be in love with Jung-kyung since she's dating Hyun-ho. We do get quick shots of this trio's past, where our second leads seem to be in love with each other while Joon-young looks on, of course unable to do anything, and this only adds on to the "unattainable love" aspect. 

I also can't believe I'm saying this but Song-ah might be the K-drama character I relate to the most, especially with her sense of being lost in her uncertain future. It just hit close to home and really made me feel for the character a lot more. It's quite sad too because we see her being so excited when she first gets enrolled into the music department but now, much of that initial joy seems to be crushed by the harsh reality of the world. There's a scene in this episode (which is just like the episode's title) where Song-ah searches for videos of Joon-young performing Schumann's Traumerei (which she overheard him playing in a rehearsal room) and while she can't find any videos of him, there are still many other videos of other pianists. She then laments about how even though there are so many results when she searches up "dream", she still can't find her own and that hit me pretty hard. Take that how you will but of course, Song-ah is still holding on to her unadulterated passion for music, with her love for the violin being so pure, and it just makes me hope that she'll find some kind of solace in her art.

This drama's first episode has been super thought-provoking, especially with the theme and juxtaposition of the two trios. I'm super excited to see how much deeper this drama will delve into this concept of friendship and love, both for music and for people. I want to know so much more about Joon-young and Jung-kyung's relationship and how they ended up this way because she too didn't seem thrilled to see him at the airport. Just on a lighter side-note, there are very few times where I'm blown away by an actress' visual in a drama but my god, Park Ji-hyun has joined that small club (seriously look at her). All in all, just episode 1 alone has completely absorbed me into this musical world and I'm really looking forward to more. Even if I'm not musically inclined, Do You Like Brahms? has already connected with me personally and I actively want to follow our lead Song-ah on her journey and while she finds her dream along the way or at the end, maybe I'll find mine too.