Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 01/01/2008, uploaded on 01/26/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Scherzo for Violin and Piano in c minor (from F.A.E. Sonata)        Johannes Brahms

Brahms met the Schumanns in September 1853. Both Robert and Clara were profoundly impressed with Brahms' music and they welcomed him wholeheartedly into their home. He met with them nearly every day, performing music and accompanying them on walks. He also began a lifelong friendship with Robert Schuamann's pupil Albert Dietrich who spawned a strong interest for the visual arts in Brahms. For a very brief time in the Schumanns' home, Brahms lived in an artistic environment immensely conducive to his development as a musician.

The violinist Joseph Joachim, who was responsible for urging Brahms to meet Robert Schumann, was set to perform in Düsseldorf in October. For the event, Schumann had the idea of writing a composition for Joachim in collaboration with Brahms and Dietrich-each would contribute a different movement. Thus was born the "F-A-E" Sonata for violin and piano. Its title is based on the acronym for Joachim's personal motto Frei aber einsem (Free but lonely). Joachim was given the work on his arrival and played through the work with Clara Schumann accompanying. His task was to guess who had written which movement. Joachim had little difficulty in guessing the authorship of each of the movements. Schumann had given his best in the Intermezzo and Finale, which he latter incorporated into his own Violin Sonata No. 3. Dietrich had provided the expansive first movement. Brahms, on the other hand, contributed the most unique portion of the work-a scherzo. This scherzo, along with the Scherzo in E flat minor and those of his piano sonatas, is another example of the early mastery Brahms achieved in this particular idiom.

The work was surprisingly successful unlike most collaborative works. Joachim retained the original manuscript for himself however, and it was not until 1935 that the entire work was published. He did allow Brahms' scherzo movement, on the other hand, to be published in 1906, nearly ten years after Brahms' death.     Joseph DuBose
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Scherzo from the "F-A-E" Sonata    Johannes Brahms

The 'F.A.E' Sonata, a four-movement work for violin and piano, is an interesting example of a collaborative effort by three composers. It was composed in Düsseldorf in October 1853 by Robert Schumann, the young Johannes Brahms(who had become known to Schumann on the 1st of that month) and Albert Dietrich, a pupil of Schumann.

The Sonata was Schumann's idea and was intended as a gift and tribute to the violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom all three composers had relatively recently become friends.  Joachim had taken the Romantic-sounding phrase Frei aber einsam as his personal motto ('free but lonely'), and the idea was for all of the movements of the sonata to make prominent use of the musical notes F-A-E, echoing this motto, and for Joachim to guess the composer of each movement. To Dietrich was assigned the substantial sonata-form first movement; Schumann followed with a short 'Romance' taking the place of a slow movement; the scherzo was by Brahms-who had already proved himself a natural master of this form in his e-flat minor scherzo for piano and the scherzos of his first two piano sonatas.  Schumann provided the finale.

The work was presented to Joachim at the end of the month; he played it in the Schumann household and identified its authors without difficulty. The work in its entirety thereafter remained unpublished. Schumann proceeded to incorporate his two movements into his own Violin Sonata No.3. The scherzo was eventually published in 1906,nearly ten years after Brahms' death. Whether Dietrich made any further use of his movement is not known.       Michael Cansfield

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.