Notes for: July 12, 2011
One of Brahms’s idiosyncrasies as a composer was his tendency to produce works in pairs. Thus, as a young man he wrote in succession two serenades, two piano quartets and two sextets. In later years, he coupled two symphonies, two string quartets, two concert overtures, two chamber works for the clarinet and two clarinet sonatas. In each instance, the pair constituted either Brahms’s only works in the form or medium, or his initial ventures. Apparently, the problems entailed in breaking new ground stimulated his imagination to the point that it produced enough material for two compositions.
In 1861-62, Brahms composed two piano quartets – in G minor, Opus 25, and in A major, Opus 26 – while he was still living in his home city of Hamburg. In his late 20s, he was in the process of learning his trade, and he still felt most comfortable with chamber-music groupings involving his own instrument, the piano.
The G Minor Quartet, which we hear this evening, received its first performance in Hamburg in November 1861, with Brahms’s friend Clara Schumann playing the piano part. Hamburg was then a cultural backwater, and the work received little attention elsewhere. A year later, however, the quartet was instrumental in what was perhaps Brahms’s most important career decision.
In September 1862, Brahms visited Vienna to assess the advisability of his moving permanently to the music capital of Europe. He showed the two piano quartets to Josef Hellmesberger, head of Vienna’s leading string quartet, who arranged public performances of the works with Brahms at the piano. The resulting favorable reception helped persuade Brahms to make the jump from Hamburg to Vienna the following year.
The G Minor Quartet is one of Brahms’s most infectious compositions, combining the exuberance and vigor of youth with a growing mastery of form and thematic development. The first movement has no less than eight themes, some in the tonic G minor and some in contrasting D major and D minor, but all linked by a complex web of shared motives and rhythmic elements. After the themes are presented, Brahms restates the opening theme in a new dress, as a dialogue between the piano and strings.
With so much material, Brahms avoids diffuseness by focusing the development on the opening theme. Perhaps the most inventive passage comes in the recapitulation when a particularly vigorous theme, heard initially in a joyful D major, is now repeated in a somber G minor. The movement is then played out in the minor mode, giving the music an over-all tragic cast.
The second movement bears the title “Intermezzo”, the first time Brahms used that term. Organized like a scherzo with a main section, a trio and the main section repeated, the music is played with mutes and in a flowing 9/8 rhythm. The result is the first of those “sweet-sad” interludes that Brahms was often to use as a respite between weightier movements.
The slow movement is one of startling contrasts. After a long relaxed opening in E flat, there is a sudden change of mood, and we are caught up in a rhythmic march (though in triple meter) in C major. The march, first played pianissimo, rises to a stirring climax fortissimo. The first section returns in the secondary key, and when it regains its original key it is so changed in texture that there is no sense of anticlimax.
Brahms titled the fourth movement Rondo alla Zingarese or “Gypsy Rondo” in the mistaken belief that he had written in an authentic Hungarian folk style. In 1853, he had toured Europe as piano accompanist for Eduard Remenyi, a Hungarian violinist, and had developed an affection for what he thought was Hungarian music. What he had heard, however, was a popularized version of Hungarian music then being offered by traveling gypsy bands without roots in Magyar musical tradition.
As a result, Brahms, like Liszt and other composers, confused gypsy music with true Hungarian music, and erroneously used the terms “Hungarian” and “gypsy” interchangeably. It was not until early in the 20th century that Bartók and Kodály, on the basis of field research, documented the substantial differences between the gypsy style favored by Brahms and the authentic Magyar idiom.
For sheer excitement, the “Gypsy Rondo” has few equals in chamber music. Following the gypsy convention, the movement consists of a feverish sequence of separate sections, in contrasting rhythms and moods. There is then a cadenza in which the four instruments rhapsodize over the melodies. The work ends with a headlong rush, marked by the composer molto presto, the only such designation in the chamber-music repertory.
A final note. In 1937, Arnold Schoenberg, an admirer of Brahms, brilliantly arranged the piano quartet for full orchestra, and this version is occasionally heard in the concert hall. In the “Gypsy Rondo”, he embellished the uproarious closing measures with trombone glissandi and a large percussion battery including xylophone and glockenspiel! This treatment sounds entirely appropriate.
Notes for: July 12, 2016
One of Brahms’s idiosyncrasies as a composer was his tendency to produce works in pairs. Thus, as a young man he wrote in succession two serenades, two piano quartets and two sextets. In later years, he coupled two symphonies, two string quartets, two concert overtures, two chamber works for the clarinet and two clarinet sonatas. In each instance, the pair was either Brahms’s only works in the form, or his initial venture. Apparently, each new venture produced enough material for two compositions.
In 1861-62, Brahms composed two piano quartets – in G minor, Op. 25, and in A major, Op. 26 – while he was living in his home city of Hamburg. Only in his late 20s, he still felt most comfortable with chamber-music groupings involving his own instrument, the piano.
The G Minor Quartet, which we hear this evening, was first performed in Hamburg in November 1861, with Brahms’s friend Clara Schumann at the piano. Hamburg was then a cultural backwater, and the work received little attention elsewhere. A year later, however, the quartet played an influential role in Brahms’s most important career decision. In September 1862, Brahms visited Vienna to assess the idea of moving permanently to the music capital of Europe. He showed the two piano quartets to Josef Hellmesberger, head of Vienna’s leading string quartet, who arranged public performances of the works with Brahms at the piano. Their favorable reception persuaded Brahms to move from Hamburg to Vienna the following year.
The G Minor Quartet is one of Brahms’s most delightful compositions, combining the exuberance of youth with a growing mastery of form and thematic development. The first movement has no less than eight themes, some in the tonic G minor and some in contrasting D major and D minor, but all linked by shared motives and rhythmic elements. After the themes are presented, Brahms restates the opening theme in a new way, as a dialogue between the piano and strings. With so much material, Brahms focused on developing the opening theme. Perhaps the most inventive passage is in the recapitulation where a particularly vigorous theme, heard initially in a joyful D major, is then repeated in a somber G minor. The movement continues to be played in the minor mode, giving the music an overall tragic cast.
The second movement bears the title “Intermezzo,” the first time Brahms used that term. Organized like a scherzo with a main section, a trio and the main section repeated, the music is played with mutes and in a flowing 9/8 rhythm. The result is the first of those “sweet-sad” interludes that Brahms often used as a respite between weightier movements.
The slow movement is one of startling contrasts. After a long relaxed opening in E flat, there is a sudden change of mood, and we are caught up in a rhythmic march (though in triple meter) in C major. The march, first played pianissimo, rises to a stirring climax fortissimo. The first section returns in the secondary key, but is very changed in texture.
Brahms titled the fourth movement Rondo alla Zingarese or “Gypsy Rondo” in an attempt to write in an authentic Hungarian folk style. In 1853, he had toured Europe with a Hungarian violinist, and had come to love what he thought was Hungarian music. What he had heard, however, was a popularized version of Hungarian music played by traveling gypsy bands that had no roots in Magyar musical tradition. As a result, Brahms, like Liszt and other composers, confused gypsy music with true Hungarian music, and erroneously used the terms “Hungarian” and “gypsy” interchangeably. Then, early in the 20th century Bartók and Kodály, on the basis of field research, documented the substantial differences between the gypsy style favored by Brahms and the authentic Magyar idiom.
For sheer excitement, the “Gypsy Rondo” has few equals in chamber music. It consists of a feverish sequence of separate sections, in contrasting rhythms and moods. Then there is a cadenza in which the four instruments rhapsodize over the melodies. The work ends with a headlong rush, marked by the composer molto presto, the only such designation in the chamber-music repertory.
A final note: In 1937, Arnold Schoenberg, an admirer of Brahms, brilliantly arranged the piano quartet for full orchestra, and this version is occasionally heard in the concert hall. In the “Gypsy Rondo,” he embellished the uproarious closing measures with trombone glissandi and a large percussion battery including xylophone and glockenspiel!
Notes for: August 9, 2022
In 1861, Brahms moved out of his family’s cramped house in Hamburg and into his own rooms in the suburb of Hamm. The setting apparently inspired him, and masterful works flowed from him over the next two years. The first of his important Hamm compositions were a pair of piano quartets, Op. 25 in G Minor and Op. 26 in A Major. With these two quartets, Brahms entered a significant new stage in his development. Yet the G Minor Quartet did not entirely please his friends Clara Schumann and Josef Joachim, who had problems with the first movement. Clara complained about Brahms’s choice of keys (“Too little in G minor and too much in D major”) and about the looseness with which he dealt with sonata form. As Jan Swafford summed up their reaction, “They were not yet accustomed to the dialectic Johannes had begun with tradition.”
Clara’s uneasiness derived largely from the way in which Brahms blurs the expected transitions from section to section in the first movement. Instead of the traditional, expected repeat of the exposition, he writes a short restatement of the first bars of the movement before moving directly into an intense, extended development section. Adding to Clara’s discomfort, Brahms blurs the start of the recapitulation, another change that would have confused his listeners. Along with this characteristically unorthodox treatment of form, though, there is an equally characteristic melodic expressiveness that gives a Brahmsian lushness to this powerful movement.
Brahms originally called the second movement a Scherzo, but Clara apparently suggested that the title Intermezzo would be more appropriate, given the movement’s slower tempos and tuneful grace. In the romantically expressive third movement Brahms combines two very different ideas, as a melodious theme flanks a dotted-rhythm march. While the first movement may have puzzled listeners, the last – a breathless Gypsy-style rondo – “was obviously intended to bring the house down, and it did,” as Brahms’s biographer Ivor Keys noted. Clara, who premiered the Quartet in Hamburg in 1861, wrote in her diary, “The last movement took the audience by storm.” Joachim, who had dedicated his own “Hungarian” Violin Concerto to Brahms, wrote to his friend, “You have beaten me on my own turf.” A year later, the musicians who performed the Quartet with Brahms in Vienna added their own accolade: At the end of a rehearsal, the first violinist leapt up and proclaimed, “This is Beethoven’s heir!”