Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season FINAL_BSO_Overture_May_June | Page 25

Instead of a rugged scherzo dance,
Brahms preferred a slower, gentler
triple-meter movement he called
an “intermezzo.” In the key of
C minor, movement two is a gracious
early example. Its surface delicacy
is strengthened by wonderful cross
rhythms, especially two beats against
the predominant three. The middle
trio section moves to the major and
is livelier and quicker. Schoenberg
emphasizes its outdoor freshness with
his bright orchestration, including
some percussion touches Brahms
never would have dreamed of.
Movement three begins as a
broad, soulful song in rich, warm
E-f lat major. But eventually a rather
martial rhythmic pattern springs up
and propels the music into a very
dashing military episode. Schoenberg
has a wonderful time providing the
trumpet fanfares, drums and even
cymbals that the original strings and
piano could only suggest.
The adolescent Brahms had
toured as a pianist with Hungarian
violinist Eduard Reményi, and that
experience ignited a lifelong passion
for Hungarian gypsy music. Though
we hear evocations of this type of
music in many of his works, none
can match the infectious bravura
of the Piano Quartet’s Rondo alla
Zingarese finale. Besides the very fiery
Hungarian-dance melody serving as
the rondo refrain, Brahms concocts
a bevy of irresistible tunes for all his
episodes. Of course, the Viennese-
born Schoenberg also knew the café
gypsy style well and contrives his most
dazzling scoring here—listen for those
snarling trombones when the rondo
refrain returns and all the xylophone
glitter—transforming Brahms’ most
exhilarating chamber movement into
a spectacular orchestral showpiece.
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Instrumentation: Three flutes including
piccolo, three oboes including English horn,
two clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion and strings.

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