Brahms in Montauk

    Ruth Albert Spencer will return to the Montauk Library to present “Johannes Brahms: His Life, His Loves, His Music,” a free lecture-concert, on Sunday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Ms. Spencer will perform a number of Brahms’s compositions for solo piano. Lilah Gosman, a soprano and a native of Montauk, and Milos Ripicky, a pianist, will augment the presentation. Previously,  Ms. Spencer spoke at the library about Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Chopin.

    Brahms came to prominence in the second half of the 19th century in the shadow of Beethoven. He fully absorbed his musical lineage, from the Renaissance through the Baroque to the Classical and early Romantic, yet became a forward-looking composer who experimented in his later works, paving the way for many 20th-century innovations.

    Ms. Spencer, an adjunct lecturer at the City University of New York, is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music. She completed graduate studies at Queens College and is presently a member of the music department faculties of the City University of New York and the 92nd Street Y. She has published two music education books as well as numerous articles on the music of Chopin, John Lennon, and The Band.

    Sunday’s talk will be accompanied by slides.