The Piano Sonatas in F-Sharp Minor and F Minor by Johannes Brahms

The genious of an 20-year old composer

The Piano Sonatas in F-Sharp Minor and F Minor by Johannes Brahms

"After Bach and Beethoven, Brahms is the greatest, the most sublime of all composers," wrote Hans von Bülow about the composer. Johannes Brahms' oeuvre includes symphonies, concertos, chamber music and choral works as well as many Lieder. The starting point of his compositional work, however, is characteristically his piano works. His pianistic education began at the age of 7. The Hamburg-born artist (1833-1897) concluded an era of late Romanticism with his unmistakable style, which created something new from the old forms of his predecessors. Thus, the piano sonatas Opus 2 & 5 recorded on this CD already represent an early masterpiece of the 20-year-old genius. The first performance of the 2nd and 3rd movements of the 2nd sonata was given by the pianist Clara Schumann in Leipzig in 1854. She described "the strange compositions" in her diary as "full of exuberant fantasy, intimacy of feeling and masterly in form". Brahms wrote a total of 3 piano sonatas, which outline his early compositional period and already show his intensive engagement with traditional concepts of form and motivic work. This is derived from the respective core piece, the slow movements, which are in variation form, whereby in the second sonata he uses a Minnelied as the theme, and in the third sonata he prefaces it with a poem by Sternau.

Johannes Brahms’s complex signature compositional style was crafted from a combination of Romantic temperament, expressiveness, and inspiration from the architecture of the cathedrals of his guiding stars, Bach and Beethoven. Brahms consciously opposed the aesthetic ideology of the “New Germans” of his time like Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz, in defense of his traditional outlook and the “innermost essence of music”; yet, somehow, his work today seems in a way more modern than that of many of his contemporaries. In today’s world, perhaps more than ever, we need someone like Brahms to fight for purity and sacredness in music; or, as Robert Schumann put it: “A secret alliance of kindred spirits prevails in every age. Close the circle more firmly, you who belong together, so that the truth of art may shine ever more clearly ...” Clara and Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms were united by a deep veneration for each other as artists; whereby the human ideal and the highest values of being there for each other and living together for music merged. I would like to quote Robert Schumann, introducing Brahms in the magazine “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik”, as he so aptly describes Brahms and many aspects of his music: “... he ... came from Hamburg, creating there in dark silence ... we were drawn into ever more magical circles ... made an orchestra out of the piano ... there were sonatas, or rather veiled symphonies ...” Here we are presented with the 20-year-old’s f irst major works: the piano sonatas. They will remain the most important of Brahms’s purely pianistic output for over 40 years until the Piano Pieces op. 116-119. He opens with the Sonata op. 2 in Fsharp minor, which he composed chronologically before opus 1. In one of her many letters to her friends, Clara Schumann advises future listeners not to be frightened, for the F-sharp minor sonata – dedicated to her – contains “many thunderbolts and forces of nature”. After only 2 years, Brahms concluded his work in sonata form with his third and final sonata. Thus, the first sonata in F-sharp minor and the last sonata in F-minor outline a cycle of sorts, to which my recording is dedicated. In these so-called “pianistic veiled symphonies”, Brahms already sounds orchestral – not only in the layout of the form, but also in the timbres. It almost feels as if the piano is not big enough for his ideas. One can see him reclining at the piano, deeply ab-sorbed in enjoyment – and even when conducting, always at peace with himself and his music. For me, the circles mentioned above by Schumann can also be grasped figuratively

in terms of motifs – if one takes, for example, the slow movement of the 2nd Sonata “si do re la”; just as circles in the sense of a recurring element, the thematic motifs run through several movements and thus hold everything together. Similar to the music of Franz Schubert, if you look closely, you can recognise even the smallest core motif as a relationship between the themes. But Schumann f inds other such apt characteristics of the sonatas: “Songs whose poetry one would understand without knowing the words ... a deep vocal melody runs through all of them ...” Indeed, throughout Brahms’s life, song and the idea of vocal expression play a big role in all of his piano literature.

In my personal experience, playing Brahms is a blessing for the soul. It is almost akin to bathing in sound, immersing oneself fully in the instrument in a way that almost seems impossible with any other composer. My first immersion in Brahms’s world was the Horn Trio, at the beginning of my studies, which immediately formed the typical association with Brahms’s beloved instrument and its closeness to nature. Later came the cello sonatas; his 51 exercises are always on my music stand: melancholic beauty filled with harmonically rich thirds. My teacher, Dina Ugorskaya, gave me an old Russian edition of the four Symphonies, which has also been on my piano ever since. It was only near the end of my studies that I ventured into the sonatas, which from that time on have been my faithful companions. Back to Schumann’s words about the sonatas: “... they each seemed to flow from different sources.” Although all the movements in both sonatas are in extreme contrast to each other, an intimate bond runs through them. Even the energetic and majestic 2nd and 3rd sonata side by side virtually vibrate in their intensity and tension of themes; and they unveil, so to speak, “secrets of the spirit world” in the awareness of what is to come. Despite their passionate, effervescent youthfulness, they foreshadow the greatness, longing and idio syncrasy of Brahms’s character. Schumann concludes: “... as if he, roaring along as a stream, united all as to a waterfall, over the rushing waves ... on the shore surrounded by butterflies ...” Here we recall the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann, Novalis, Friedrich Schiller, Joseph von Eichendorff and Jean Paul: Brahms’s favourite authors who helped shape him throughout his life. He liked to read a lot and recommended it to everyone he liked. Although, to a certain extent, the poetic motif “Frei Aber Einsam” (“Free but lonely”), transliterated musically as the pitches FA-E which he already quotes prophetically in the f inale of the 3rd Sonata, will accompany his life, for he dedicates his genius and existence to his art with infinite devotion. Brahms’s music flows into us full of velvety, warmth and monumentality; it never leaves us behind, but lifts us up, calling us to strive for the highest. Despite its constant weight, it seems to carry us, one cannot escape its effect. It is full of engaging warmth and generosity, like Brahms himself. Deeply rooted in a distant time, it still manages to give comfort today and, very secretly, to redeem something in us.