No. 2064 Subscription (Program A)

German composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was born in Hamburg in 1833 and brought up in a working-class background. He was given lessons on the piano, cello, and horn as a young boy and later studied piano and composition with Eduard Marxsen, who instilled in him a love of Bach and the Viennese Classical composers. After leaving school, he earned his living as a pianist and conducting amateur choirs to help his family, while aspiring to be a composer. The first turning point came in 1853 when he met Robert Schumann (1810–1856) and Clara Schumann (1819–1896) in Düsseldorf and played to them his piano sonata, which Robert praised enthusiastically. His international reputation came with the success of his Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) in Bremen in 1868. In 1872, he became the director of concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and settled permanently in Vienna. From then on, he could concentrate more on composition, although he continued to tour as pianist and conductor, performing not only his own compositions but a wide range of works consisting of contemporary as well as earlier repertoire. His compositions include 4 symphonies, 4 concertos, piano works, chamber music for various forces, choral works, and songs.
His Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, was composed in the summer of 1887 at Lake Thun, a picturesque holiday resort in Switzerland. Written two years after his Symphony No. 4 (1885), it was to become his last work for orchestra. The impetus for composing this Double Concerto seems to have come from the cellist Robert Hausmann, who had asked Brahms for a cello concerto. But instead, the composer came up with a concerto for two soloists, which had precedents in the 18th century, but quite unusual for the time. The violin part of the Double Concerto was intended for the renowned Austro-Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim, for whom Brahms had composed his Violin Concerto in 1878. Although Brahms had fallen out with Joachim for some years, this concerto resulted in a reconciliation.
The concerto was premiered in Cologne in October 1887 with Joachim and Hausmann as soloists and the composer conducting. At first, his friends, including Clara Schumann, were somewhat skeptical about the work, but despite the initial cool reception, it went on to be highly regarded by musicians and audiences alike.
The main theme of the Allegro first movement is introduced by the orchestra but is interrupted by an extended cello solo followed a cadenza by the two soloists, before the main theme returns in the orchestra. The cello then introduces the gentle second theme. The lyrical second movement (Andante) opens with the two instruments presenting the rapturous melody in D major in octave unison. The rondo finale (Vivace non troppo) pays tribute to Joachim’s Hungarian roots with its lively gypsy-style theme.

[Nahoko Gotoh]

Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951), known as the composer who revolutionized 20th century music with his 12-tone technique (serialism), was a great admirer of Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). In his essay Brahms the Progressive, Schönberg said that Brahms “was a great innovator in the realm of musical language...in fact, he was a great progressive.” Schönberg particularly admired Brahms’s technique of the “developing variation” and utilized this in his own works. A work he was fond of was Brahms’s Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor, which Schönberg orchestrated in 1937 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Brahms had composed the work, the first of three piano quartets, in 1861 when he was in his late twenties. Around this time, he produced several chamber music works including his string sextets, piano quintet, and the first cello sonata. He was quite proud of the quartet and the following year he chose it in the program of his first concert in Vienna as pianist and composer. The quartet is in four movements. The Allegro first movement opens with a four-note motive, which becomes the basis of the whole movement and undergoes numerous transformations. The second movement, titled Intermezzo, is a scherzo in all but name. The restless Allegro ma non troppo sections frame the trio (Animato). The third movement is a ravishing lyrical slow movement that Brahms excelled in. The finale is a Rondo alla zingarese (gypsy-style rondo), which we also heard earlier in the Double Concerto, but this finale is more youthful and exuberant.
Schönberg arranged this quartet for a huge orchestra that features abundant percussion, used to great effect in the gypsy-style finale. He explained that one of the reasons he orchestrated the work was that often the piano part is played too loudly and one can’t hear the strings. “I wanted for once to hear everything and this I achieved.”
If you enjoy this orchestral performance and you are not familiar with the original piano quartet, it is well worth seeking out and comparing the two versions.

[Nahoko Gotoh]