Johannes Brahms (5/07/1833 - 4/03/1897)

Brahms completed some two dozen pieces of chamber music and almost all of these have some claim on our attention. For violin and piano there are three sonatas, Opp. 78, 100 and 108, with a separate Scherzo movement for a collaborative sonata he wrote with Schumann and Dietrich for their friend Joachim. For cello and piano he wrote two fine sonatas: Opp. 38 and 99. There are two late sonatas, written in 1894, for clarinet/viola and piano, Op. 120, each version deserving attention, as well as a Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 for clarinet, cello and piano, and a Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 for clarinet and string quartet, both written three years earlier. In addition to this, mention must be made of the three piano trios, Opp. 8, 87 and 101, the Horn Trio, Op. 40 for violin, horn and piano, three piano quartets, Opp. 25, 26 and 60, a Piano Quintet, Op. 34, and three string quartets, Opp. 51 and 67. Two string sextets, Opp. 18 and 36, and two string quintets, Opp. 88 and 111, make up the list.

Piano Music

If all the chamber music of Brahms should be heard, the same may be said of his music for piano. Brahms showed a particular talent for the composition of variations, and this is aptly demonstrated in the famous Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, with which he made his name at first in Vienna, and the ‘Paganini’ Variations, Op. 35, based on the theme of the great violinist’s Caprice No. 24. Other sets of variations show similar skill, if not the depth and variety of these major examples of the art. Four Ballades, Op. 10 include one based on a real Scottish ballad, Edward, a story of parricide. The three piano sonatas, Opp. 1, 2 and 5, relatively early works, are less well known than the later piano pieces, Opp. 118 and 119, written in 1892, and the Fantasias, Op. 116 of the same year. Music for four hands, either as duets or for two pianos, includes the famous Hungarian Dances (often heard in orchestral and instrumental arrangement), and a variety of original compositions and arrangements of music better known in orchestral form.

Vocal and Choral Music

There is again great difficulty of choice when we approach the large number of songs written by Brahms, which were important additions to the repertoire of German Lied (art song). The Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 for vocal quartet and piano duet are particularly delightful, while the solo songs include the moving Four Serious Songs, Op. 121, reflecting preoccupations as his life drew to a close. ‘Wiegenlied’ (‘Cradle Song’) is one of a group of Five Songs, Op. 49; the charming ‘Vergebliches Ständchen’ (‘Vain Serenade’) appears in a later set of Five Romances and Songs, Op. 84, and there are two particularly wonderful songs for contralto, viola and piano, Op. 91: ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ (‘Tranquil Yearning’) and the Christmas ‘Geistliches Wiegenlied’ (‘Spiritual Cradle-Song’), Op. 91, based on the carol Josef, lieber Josef mein (‘Joseph dearest, Joseph mine’).

Major choral works by Brahms include the monumental A German Requiem, Op. 45, a setting of biblical texts, the Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53, with a text derived from Goethe, the Schicksalslied (‘Song of Destiny’), Op. 54 (a setting of Hölderlin), and a series of accompanied and unaccompanied choral works, written for the choral groups with which he was concerned in Hamburg and in Vienna.