Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2

Abstract

Brahms wrote only three piano sonatas. The first of these. Opus 1 in C major, was completed in 1853 and published in that year with a dedication to Joseph Joachim. At Weimar Liszt had played through some of the sonata, before his usual admiring audience of followers, but whatever comments he nnay have made in the course of his performance have not been reported. Schumann, however, when he heard the sonata in Dusseldorf, was immediately impressed, as was his wife, who recorded the event in her diary. To Schumann the young composer was a genius, to whom no advice could be offered. In his sonatas were veiled symphonies in sound, as Schumann wrote in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. Here, in fact, was the Messiah lhat had been long awaited. Such praise from such a source was daunting, and Brahms exercised all the greater care in revising his first two piano sonatas for publication in Leipzig by Breitkopf and Hartel. The C major Sonata opens with an emphatic and firmly classical first subject leading to a lyrical A minor second subject, exploring a wide range of keys in a manner that might suggest Schubert The second movement is based on an old German Minnelied, the words of which are given with the openinq melody: “Verstohlen geht der Mond auf, blau, blau Blumelein, durch Silberwolkchen fuhrt sein Lauf, blau, blau Blumelein. Rosen im Tal, Madel im Saal, o schonste Rosa! (The moon steals out, Blue, blue little flower, Through silver clouds he takes his course, Blue, blue little flower. Roses in the valley, maiden in her chamber, O most beautiful Rosa!)”