Johannes Brahms’s piano sonatas opp. 1, 2 and 5 were among the first works that the then 20-year-old composer published. Much of the music of the f-minor Sonata is closely connected to Brahms’s visit to Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf in the autumn of 1853. There are indications that the young Brahms was inspired by Robert Schumann’s Sonata op. 14 – which was also in f minor. The music critic Eduard Hanslick also believed that he could discern the influence of Brahms’s older colleague when he wrote about the Sonata op. 5: “The whole of Brahms is here, though still under the spell of Schumann”. This revised Urtext edition is based on the musical text of the New Brahms Complete Edition. The fingerings are by Andreas Boyde and offer the performer highly ingenious solutions to mastering this piano work that is so symphonic in scope.
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Preface
Whereas Johannes Brahms’s (1833 – 97) early Piano Sonatas in C major op. 1 and f minor op. 2 were composed between April 1852 and spring 1853 in Hamburg, his Piano Sonata in f minor op. 5 is closely connected with his sojourn in Düsseldorf in the autumn of 1853. On 30 September he introduced himself there to the couple Robert and Clara Schumann, with whom he … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer
Johannes Brahms
His significant output comprises chamber music, piano works, numerous choral compositions and songs (including settings of folk-song lyrics), as well as large-scale orchestral works in the 1870s and 1880s. His compositions are characterized by the process of developing variation. He is considered an antithesis to the New German School around Liszt, and an advocate of “absolute” music.
| 1833 | Born in Hamburg on May 7, the son of a musician. His first piano instruction with Willibald Cossel at age seven, then with Eduard Marxen; first public performances from 1843. |
| 1853 | Concert tour through German cities; he meets Schumann, who announces him as the next great composer in his essay “Neue Bahnen” (“New Paths”). A lifelong, intimate friendship develops with Clara Schumann. |
| 1854–57 | Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. |
| 1857–59 | Choir director, pianist, and teacher at the royal court in Detmold. |
| 1859–61 | Director of the Hamburg Women’s Choir. |
| 1860 | Manifesto against the New Germans around Liszt. |
| 1863 | Cantata “Rinaldo,” Op. 50. |
| 1863–64 | Director of the Wiener Singakademie. |
| 1868 | Partial performance in Vienna of “A German Requiem,” Op. 45 (the complete work premiered in Leipzig in 1869) |
| 1871–74 | Artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna. |
| 1873 | Haydn Variations, Op. 56a, for orchestra. |
| from 1877 | His symphonic output begins with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (begun 1862); composition of the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73; the Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883); and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–85): cantabile themes, chamber-music-like style. |
| from 1878 | Travels in Italy. |
| 1878 | Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, for Joseph Joachim. |
| 1881 | Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, with a scherzo movement. |
| 1886 | Honorary president of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerverein (Association of Musicians). |
| 1897 | Four Serious Songs, Op. 121. Dies in Vienna on April 3. |
About the authors
Andreas Boyde (Fingering)
Andreas Boyde, was born in 1967 in Oschatz/Saxony and studied the piano in Dresden and London. He has appeared as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra Manchester, the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
Boyde’s repertoire comprises key works from all periods, also including contemporary composers such as Paul Schoenfield and John Pickard. Boyde has recorded Brahms’s complete solo piano works with OehmsClassics, a co-production with the WDR.