Review: PianoNews
Review: MusicWebInternational
Review: MusicWebInternational
Piano Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 2
1. Allegro non troppo, ma energico
2. Andante con espressione
3. Scherzo: Allegro – Poco più moderato
4. Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro non troppo e rubato – Molto sostenuto
5. Scherzo in E-flat minor, Op. 4
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
6. Allegro maestoso
7. Andante. Andante espressivo – Andante molto
8. Scherzo. Allegro energico
9. Intermezzo. Andante molto
10. Finale. Allegro moderato ma rubato
Brahms Piano Sonatas ©
The Sonata Op.2 counts among the very earliest of Brahms’s works to survive what was, even at that nascent stage of the composer’s career, a fiercely self-critical ear which saw countless pages of manuscript consigned to the fire before reaching the eyes or keyboards of others. Brahms dated the sonata to November 1852, and wrote all bar the Andante of the Op.1 Sonata after it. He became concerned over which pieces to publish, and in which order, after his life-changing encounters with Schumann, Liszt and Joachim during 1853. He chose, in Joachim’s words, to lead ‘with the head rather than the feet’. In any case the Op.1 Sonata bears a manuscript heading of ‘Vierte Sonate’ (Fourth Sonata), which implies that Brahms regarded Op.2 as his third completed essay in the genre.
Be that as it may, the Op.2 Sonata already exults in a strength, originality and finesse of form which would go on to mark out Brahms as the pre-eminent architect of musical Romanticism. To take a modern example, much as the weather-beaten 1950s brutalism of London’s cultural South Bank embodies principles of harmony and tension, outward with its surroundings and inward with its proportions, so the beardless, 20-year-old Brahms sets up and wrestles with fundamental oppositions which would continue to define the flow and the struggle of his music over the next 40 years and more.
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 2022
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 900
EAN: 5709499900000
