Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/16/2007, uploaded on 01/13/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Intermezzo in B-flat Major, from Eight piano pieces, Op. 76           Johannes Brahms

Brahms completed the Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76 in 1878. To four of the pieces he gave the title Capriccio, and to the other four, Intermezzo. It is clear that these titles, along with several others, were largely interchangeable in Romantic piano music, and it is sometimes difficult to see why a particular title was chosen. Regardless, each movement is perfectly formed and highly expressive.

The dark, f-sharp minor tonality and diminished harmonies of the first piece's introductory page prepare us for music which seethes with suppressed passion. In the second piece, we see a lighter side to Brahms, with hints of Hungarian flavor.  The almost constant 16^th note movement is maintained even as the accompaniment to the cantabile contrasting theme of this irresistible piece.  In the third piece a peaceful, beautiful mood is achieved through the graceful, rather limpid theme of falling notes and the constant gentle arpeggio of chords. A similarly gentle mood is achieved in the fourth piece with a lyrical theme of dotted rhythms alternating with Hungarian thirds and sixths, pianissimo, with an enigmatic and sudden end.

The boldness of the opening of the following Capriccio creates a complete contrast, and this fifth piece contains many contrasts in and of itself. The range of emotion expressed includes moments full of anger and frustration yet leading to a moment of exquisite tenderness and what seems very much like hope just before the coda. The sixth piece is in the conventional ABA form.  A triplet movement in the right hand is set against simple eighth notes in the left, creating a constant rhythmic tension beneath the surface.  The seventh piece is framed by two identical chordal statements, while the main section, devised from a single, syncopated phrase, is more searching in nature. The final Capriccio is like an improvisation-restless and passionate.  Here Brahms avoids a cadence in the tonic of C major until the very end, making the final cadence all the more triumphant.        Maya Hartman

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.