Classical Music | Music for Duo

Johannes Brahms

Two Waltzes from Op. 39  Play

DUO Duo

Recorded on 04/09/2009, uploaded on 06/16/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Brahms’s 16 Waltzes for piano duet are one of the three groups of dances he published during the 1860s; the other three being the first ten Hungarian Dances, also for piano duet, and the 18 Liebeslieder-Walzer, op. 52 for piano duet and vocal quartet. All three were composed in a “popular” style and were largely responsible for Brahms’s growing reputation among the general public as well as a significant source of his personal fortune.

The Waltzes have much in common with those of Franz Schubert and are in no way like the grand episodic waltzes of Brahms’s contemporary and friend Johann Strauss II. Brahms’s usual complex compositional traits are not in the forefront here and the sole focus seems to be nothing more than melodic charm (although, no. 16 does manage to slip in a passage in double counterpoint). Despite this, Brahms thought well enough of these miniatures and, as mentioned above, they were quite successful. He later published two arrangements for piano solo—one in keeping with the original duet version and a simplified version for pianists of lesser skill.      Joseph DuBose

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16 Waltzes Op. 39     Johannes Brahms

Brahms's 16 Waltzes for piano duet are one of the three groups of dances he published during the 1860s; the other three being the first ten Hungarian Dances, also for piano duet, and the 18 Liebeslieder-Walzer, op. 52 for piano duet and vocal quartet. All three were composed in a "popular" style and were largely responsible for Brahms's growing reputation among the general public as well as a significant source of his personal fortune.

The Waltzes have much in common with those of Franz Schubert and are in no way like the grand episodic waltzes of Brahms's contemporary and friend Johann Strauss II. Brahms's usual complex compositional traits are not in the forefront here and the sole focus seems to be nothing more than melodic charm (although, no. 16 does manage to slip in a passage in double counterpoint). Despite this, Brahms thought well enough of these miniatures and, as mentioned above, they were quite successful. He later published two arrangements for piano solo-one in keeping with the original duet version and a simplified version for pianists of lesser skill.