EMANUEL AX PERFORMS BRAHMS
The last movement is the lightest of all:
a series of sprightly themes strung loosely
together in the style of a comic-opera
finale. Commentators have criticized its
rambling length, but better to simply
enjoy Schubert’s ability to create one blithe
tune after another.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two
trumpets, timpani and strings.
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2
Johannes Brahms
Born in Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833;
died in Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897
In April 1878, Johannes Brahms decided
to treat himself to a vacation in Italy. And,
like many travelers before and since, he
fell in love with this land of sunshine,
good living and even greater art and
would return there eight more times. To
his longtime friend, the celebrated pianist
Clara Schumann, he penned a “wish-you-
were-here” letter: “How often do I not
think of you, and wish that your eye and
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heart might know the delight which the
eye and heart experiences here!”
This rich visual stimulation inspires
a new work, which would eventually
become his Second Piano Concerto. In
July 1881, he announced the concerto’s
birth in a series of teasing letters to
several friends. To Dr. Theodor Billroth,
the companion of his Italian sightseeing,
he sent a copy of the bulky score with a
note identifying it as “a couple of little
piano pieces.” To his current muse,
the lovely and safely married Elisabeth
von Herzogenberg, he revealed: “I have
written a tiny little piano concerto with
a tiny wisp of a scherzo.” However, the
composer revealed the true nature of his
newest creation to von Herzogenberg
when he described it as “the long Terror.”
For the Second Piano Concerto is long
indeed: with four substantial movements
lasting approximately 50 minutes, it
is the size of two ordinary concertos
put together. And it is monumental in
its architecture, emotional scope and
the demands it places on the pianist.
Brahms scholar Malcolm MacDonald
describes its technical challenges well:
“In its massive chording, wide [finger]
stretches, vigor, richness and textural
variety, the piano writing is the most
elaborate result of his lifelong fascination
with virtuoso technique.…Above all,
the role of the soloist is fluid…he or she
must…dominate with the utmost power
at certain junctures, but other moments
call for extreme delicacy and limpidity of
touch, the reticence and self-effacement
of the ideal accompanist.”
The concerto’s chamber-music
opening is unique. A solo horn sings out
the gently rising principal theme, and
the piano echoes each phrase. Suddenly
the pianist throws off his reserve and
plunges into a titanic monologue: the
first of many mini-cadenzas Brahms
embeds throughout his structure rather
than giving the soloist just one extended
opportunity for display. This in turn
galvanizes the orchestra into action,
transforming the horn’s shy theme into
a mighty march. Soon we hear the first
suggestion of the movement’s second
theme: a supple, swaying melody in the
violins that is quickly broken off.
The pianist now expands this thematic
material, and when he comes to the
swaying second theme, he reveals its
character as passionate rather than
nostalgic, hardening its curves with
stentorian chords. By now, the music
has taken a very dramatic and even
ominous turn from its tender beginning.
It culminates in a fierce declamation of
the principal theme by the full orchestra
before the horn quietly sounds that
theme again and the music merges into
the development section proper. (In fact,
Brahms has already been busy developing
and transforming his themes from the
very beginning.)
The arrival home at the recapitulation
section is one of Brahms’ most magical
and moving. He keeps trying to get there
by gestures of musical willpower. But
finally, only gentle acceptance succeeds, as
the piano floats in shimmering arpeggios
and the horn warmly welcomes it back.
The “tiny wisp of a scherzo” forms
the pianist-killer second movement: a
fierce Allegro appassionato. Brahms’
friends asked him why he had added