September 26, 2016.Brahms’s Klavierstücke, op. 76. In the past we publisheda series of articles about Brahms’s late piano works: 7 Fantasien, op. 116 (here), 3 Intermezzi op. 117 (here), 6 Klavierstucke op. 118 (here), and 4 Klavierstucke op. 119 (here).Today we’ll publish an article on a piano set he created earlier, sometime between 1871 and 1878, titled 8 Klavierstücke, op. 76.We have two sets of recordings, one made by the English pianist Sam Armstrong, another – by the American, Maya Hartman. ♫
The Eight Klavierstücke, op. 76 was a marked departure for Brahms in the realm of piano music—not since the composition of the Ballades in the mid-1850s had he composed a set of miniatures. The sonata had long since disappeared; the only three Brahms left to us were products of his youth. The piano music of his middle period was dominated by large-scale variation sets. The last of these sets, the Paganini Variations, was also his last work for solo piano before the composition of the 8 Klavierstücke in the late 1870s, a space of fifteen years. Viewed as a part of Brahms’s entire output for the piano, the Klavierstücke and the contemporaneous 2 Rhapsodies, op. 79 form the transition from those Classically-oriented pieces of his youth and middle period, to the deeply introspective Romanticism of his last works for piano, namely, opp. 116-19. With the Klavierstücke, lengthy discourses are abandoned in favor of a greater economy of means, a trend that pervaded most of Brahms’s late music, even in large-scale works, in which fewer and fewer notes were forced to bear an ever increasing portion of a piece’s emotional weight. Concomitantly, there is also a greater emphasis on motivic development, a feature really of all of Brahms’s music, but now driven to even more exacting and imaginative lengths.
The set begins with the fantasia-like F-sharp minor Capriccio. Ominous arpeggios reach up out of the bass register in the opening measures, intermixed with a distinctive stepwise descent through the interval of a third that becomes an important accompanimental figure to the principal melody which later emerges. The melody itself, which appears after a fortissimo close on the dominant, emphasizes two semitone movements within its initial measures—the first, moving upwards, and the latter, downwards. This motif becomes the focus of the Capriccio’s discourse. Initially, beginning on the dominant, its position within the scale and its key is later changed, yet its melodic pattern remains unchanged, as it is woven into the endless accompaniment of broken chords. A strict inversion of the melody even appears immediately before the reprise of the opening fantasia. This reprise, though structurally similar to the opening statement, is greatly changed. The left hand takes the burden of presenting the motivic material while the right now provides brilliant filigree in the upper register. The lengthy coda returns to working out the melody of the middle section, presenting it in octaves against repeated statements in augmentation of descending thirds. However, its final statements take place betwixt a firm tonic pedal in the bass and the return of the fanciful passagework in the treble, as the piece dies away into a conclusion in F-sharp major.(Read morehere).
Following such somber utterances is the jocular Capriccio in B minor. Its skittish theme is set against an “oompah” accompaniment with a chromatically deciding bass line, and at moments is unsure whether to adopt the major or minor mode—all of which help turn its nervousness to comedic effect. Even more humorous is the grandiose D major melody that later appears, but twice peters out in an uncertain passage of wavering semitones. The piece’s central episode relegates the characteristic sixteenth-note prattling of the principal theme into the accompaniment as a new espressivo melody emerges in the treble. Though charming, its outward show of sentimentality and affection, with little warning, is supplanted by a restatement of the grandiose melody, now transposed into the key of B major. An embellished reprise of the opening B minor theme leads into another working out of its material, during which it ultimately finds its place in the major mode. Yet, in the final measures, the music jokingly and quite unexpectedly shifts into C major. With equal ease, Brahms returns to B major just three measures before the end to conclude this amusing little Capriccio.
The two Intermezzi that follow, on the other hand, convey a different mood, one of thoughtful repose, than the opening Capriccii. The first, in A-flat major, demands of the performer a keen sense of tone-color. Throughout much of the piece, and most prominently towards its conclusion, syncopated chords in the instrument’s delicate upper register are set against strummed, harp-like chords in the decidedly fuller middle range. The only point of contrast to the gentle theme is a fleeting, quizzical motif of triplets that wind about the tones of the dominant seventh. It appears at the end of the theme’s two statements, the latter of which is slightly drawn out into brief coda. The B-flat Intermezzo which follows likewise displays a tranquil demeanor, with the exception of the restless stream of sixteenth notes that appear towards the end of the theme. The theme itself unfolds over descending arpeggios, which with calculated effect obscure the B-flat major tonality and carefully avoid any appearance of the tonic chord. It is modestly, though briefly, developed before its reprise. Concluding this time in the tonic key, the restless sixteenth notes bring about a sudden, yet momentary, outburst across a minor subdominant chord before the final tonic chords.
The fifth piece, a Capriccio in C-sharp minor, exudes the abundant energy of cross-rhythms as the principal theme emphatically hammers out a 3/4 meter against the 6/8 of the accompaniment. As the piece unfolds the conflicting meters do not always appear simultaneously, but sometimes appear juxtaposed in adjacent measures, creating a turbulent, yet thrilling flow of energy. With such rhythmic forces at play, Brahms naturally subjects the theme to more rhythmic variation than motivic development across the piece’s extended ternary design. A brief poco tranquillo passage serves as a contrasting episode, after a passage derived from music heard earlier adds a third rhythmic element to the fray: a strict duple meter fraught with syncopations. The theme, and its accompaniment, then reappear, remolded to conform to the new meter. Once achieving the major mode, the music begins to recede, nearly evaporating over a lengthy ritardando. However, its fiery vigor returns, along with the original 6/8 meter, as the theme’s head motif appears over an ominous, chromatically descending bass line, building from a piano into the final fortissimo C-sharp minor chords.
The following two Intermezzi are somewhat more active than their earlier counterparts, yet still maintain the same inward gaze. The first features similar cross-rhythms to those that gave the previous Capriccio its fiery energy. Yet, here, the energy is seemingly kept just beneath the surface of its lyrical demeanor and glowing A major figurations. A more subdued tone is reached in the F-sharp minor central episode, which faintly augurs the same section of the A major Intermezzo of opus 118. Adopting the key of the parallel minor, the second Intermezzo opens with an archaic-sounding theme, which hearkens back to tone of the earlier op. 10 Ballades, fragmented by melancholic semitone oscillations. This brief theme frames a restless middle section, whose melody grows out of those oscillations and adopts characteristic eighth-note anticipations, which saturates the entire section with a nervous rhythmic energy.
The pent-up energy of the previous two Intermezzi finds a partial outlet in the final piece of the set, an ebullient Capriccio in C major—yet, even here, Brahms manages to restrain himself. In an almost toccata-like manner, the piece takes flight with a lively motif that begins with an off-beat accent followed by eighth-notes stated repeatedly over a vigorous accompaniment of arpeggios. Once again, the cross-rhythmic effects of duple meter against triple are exploited to the give the piece an added burst of energy. The incessant accompaniment of arpeggios continues throughout the central episode while chords ring out in the treble like the tolling of bells. Despite the exultant tide of energy built up during the episode and the succeeding reprise of the principal motif, Brahms nevertheless reigns in his joyous mood during the coda. Soft tollings echo the strains of the episode before the music suddenly falls flat in two Adagio measures of stony, but mock seriousness. The motif returns, however, outlining the tonic triad, and builds over a simultaneous accelerando and crescendo to conclude on the final, triumphant chords.
Brahms’s Klavierstücke, op. 76
September 26, 2016. Brahms’s Klavierstücke, op. 76. In the past we published a series of articles about Brahms’s late piano works: 7 Fantasien, op. 116 (here), 3 Intermezzi op. 117 (here), 6 Klavierstucke op. 118 (here), and 4 Klavierstucke op. 119 (here). Today we’ll publish an article on a piano set he created earlier, sometime between 1871 and 1878, titled 8 Klavierstücke, op. 76.
We have two sets of recordings, one made by the English pianist Sam Armstrong, another – by the American, Maya Hartman. ♫
The Eight Klavierstücke, op. 76 was a marked departure for Brahms in the realm of piano music—not since the composition of the Ballades in the mid-1850s had he composed a set of miniatures. The sonata had long since disappeared; the only three Brahms left to us were products of his youth. The piano music of his middle period was dominated by large-scale variation sets. The last of these sets, the Paganini Variations, was also his last work for solo piano before the composition of the 8 Klavierstücke in the late 1870s, a space of fifteen years. Viewed as a part of Brahms’s entire output for the piano, the Klavierstücke and the contemporaneous 2 Rhapsodies, op. 79 form the transition from those Classically-oriented pieces of his youth and middle period, to the deeply introspective Romanticism of his last works for piano, namely, opp. 116-19. With the Klavierstücke, lengthy discourses are abandoned in favor of a greater economy of means, a trend that pervaded most of Brahms’s late music, even in large-scale works, in which fewer and fewer notes were forced to bear an ever increasing portion of a piece’s emotional weight. Concomitantly, there is also a greater emphasis on motivic development, a feature really of all of Brahms’s music, but now driven to even more exacting and imaginative lengths.
The set begins with the fantasia-like F-sharp minor Capriccio. Ominous arpeggios reach up out of the bass register in the opening measures, intermixed with a distinctive stepwise descent through the interval of a third that becomes an important accompanimental figure to the principal melody which later emerges. The melody itself, which appears after a fortissimo close on the dominant, emphasizes two semitone movements within its initial measures—the first, moving upwards, and the latter, downwards. This motif becomes the focus of the Capriccio’s discourse. Initially, beginning on the dominant, its position within the scale and its key is later changed, yet its melodic pattern remains unchanged, as it is woven into the endless accompaniment of broken chords. A strict inversion of the melody even appears immediately before the reprise of the opening fantasia. This reprise, though structurally similar to the opening statement, is greatly changed. The left hand takes the burden of presenting the motivic material while the right now provides brilliant filigree in the upper register. The lengthy coda returns to working out the melody of the middle section, presenting it in octaves against repeated statements in augmentation of descending thirds. However, its final statements take place betwixt a firm tonic pedal in the bass and the return of the fanciful passagework in the treble, as the piece dies away into a conclusion in F-sharp major. (Read more here).
Following such somber utterances is the jocular Capriccio in B minor. Its skittish theme is set against an “oompah” accompaniment with a chromatically deciding bass line, and at moments is unsure whether to adopt the major or minor mode—all of which help turn its nervousness to comedic effect. Even more humorous is the grandiose D major melody that later appears, but twice peters out in an uncertain passage of wavering semitones. The piece’s central episode relegates the characteristic sixteenth-note prattling of the principal theme into the accompaniment as a new espressivo melody emerges in the treble. Though charming, its outward show of sentimentality and affection, with little warning, is supplanted by a restatement of the grandiose melody, now transposed into the key of B major. An embellished reprise of the opening B minor theme leads into another working out of its material, during which it ultimately finds its place in the major mode. Yet, in the final measures, the music jokingly and quite unexpectedly shifts into C major. With equal ease, Brahms returns to B major just three measures before the end to conclude this amusing little Capriccio.
The two Intermezzi that follow, on the other hand, convey a different mood, one of thoughtful repose, than the opening Capriccii. The first, in A-flat major, demands of the performer a keen sense of tone-color. Throughout much of the piece, and most prominently towards its conclusion, syncopated chords in the instrument’s delicate upper register are set against strummed, harp-like chords in the decidedly fuller middle range. The only point of contrast to the gentle theme is a fleeting, quizzical motif of triplets that wind about the tones of the dominant seventh. It appears at the end of the theme’s two statements, the latter of which is slightly drawn out into brief coda. The B-flat Intermezzo which follows likewise displays a tranquil demeanor, with the exception of the restless stream of sixteenth notes that appear towards the end of the theme. The theme itself unfolds over descending arpeggios, which with calculated effect obscure the B-flat major tonality and carefully avoid any appearance of the tonic chord. It is modestly, though briefly, developed before its reprise. Concluding this time in the tonic key, the restless sixteenth notes bring about a sudden, yet momentary, outburst across a minor subdominant chord before the final tonic chords.
The fifth piece, a Capriccio in C-sharp minor, exudes the abundant energy of cross-rhythms as the principal theme emphatically hammers out a 3/4 meter against the 6/8 of the accompaniment. As the piece unfolds the conflicting meters do not always appear simultaneously, but sometimes appear juxtaposed in adjacent measures, creating a turbulent, yet thrilling flow of energy. With such rhythmic forces at play, Brahms naturally subjects the theme to more rhythmic variation than motivic development across the piece’s extended ternary design. A brief poco tranquillo passage serves as a contrasting episode, after a passage derived from music heard earlier adds a third rhythmic element to the fray: a strict duple meter fraught with syncopations. The theme, and its accompaniment, then reappear, remolded to conform to the new meter. Once achieving the major mode, the music begins to recede, nearly evaporating over a lengthy ritardando. However, its fiery vigor returns, along with the original 6/8 meter, as the theme’s head motif appears over an ominous, chromatically descending bass line, building from a piano into the final fortissimo C-sharp minor chords.
The following two Intermezzi are somewhat more active than their earlier counterparts, yet still maintain the same inward gaze. The first features similar cross-rhythms to those that gave the previous Capriccio its fiery energy. Yet, here, the energy is seemingly kept just beneath the surface of its lyrical demeanor and glowing A major figurations. A more subdued tone is reached in the F-sharp minor central episode, which faintly augurs the same section of the A major Intermezzo of opus 118. Adopting the key of the parallel minor, the second Intermezzo opens with an archaic-sounding theme, which hearkens back to tone of the earlier op. 10 Ballades, fragmented by melancholic semitone oscillations. This brief theme frames a restless middle section, whose melody grows out of those oscillations and adopts characteristic eighth-note anticipations, which saturates the entire section with a nervous rhythmic energy.
The pent-up energy of the previous two Intermezzi finds a partial outlet in the final piece of the set, an ebullient Capriccio in C major—yet, even here, Brahms manages to restrain himself. In an almost toccata-like manner, the piece takes flight with a lively motif that begins with an off-beat accent followed by eighth-notes stated repeatedly over a vigorous accompaniment of arpeggios. Once again, the cross-rhythmic effects of duple meter against triple are exploited to the give the piece an added burst of energy. The incessant accompaniment of arpeggios continues throughout the central episode while chords ring out in the treble like the tolling of bells. Despite the exultant tide of energy built up during the episode and the succeeding reprise of the principal motif, Brahms nevertheless reigns in his joyous mood during the coda. Soft tollings echo the strains of the episode before the music suddenly falls flat in two Adagio measures of stony, but mock seriousness. The motif returns, however, outlining the tonic triad, and builds over a simultaneous accelerando and crescendo to conclude on the final, triumphant chords.