Seven Fantasies, Op. 116
Six Klavierstücke, Op. 118
Four Klavierstücke, Op. 119
Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39
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Program Notes by Elizabeth Rich
Fantasien, Op. 116
We are in the world of late Brahms. Late style in music possesses the heightened contrapuntal mastery and concision we hear here, as well as some autumnal or spiritual quality, less easy to define. [See the author’s essay, “On Late Style”.] Hanslick called this collection “a breviary of pessimism.” This seems to shortchange its variety and contrasts: passion, lyricism, longing, sweetness, and even gratitude being present.
The title “Fantasien” has two meanings, one referring to form: a fantasy uses the idea of improvisation, of the unexpected, in creating a composed form. J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven wrote such fantasies. And fantasies are also character pieces of the Romantic era, like Schumann’s Fantasiestücke. I see both meanings in Op. 116.
The connections among the pieces in Op. 116 seem incontrovertible. The opening and closing Capriccios are both in D minor; the 3 Intermezzi, Nos. 4, 5, and 6 are in E. But it is the interrelationship of material that is so striking.
Clara Schumann writes to Brahms: “…each one in its own way. I like the deeply passionate ones as much as the dreamy ones, in which such exquisite sounds are conjured out of the piano.”
The word “Capriccio” describes character but it is also a 17th century pre-fugal form. Both aspects are present, for example, in the Capriccio in Bach’s C-Minor Partita.
1. This passionate Capriccio begins with the skip of a sixth and then a chain of descending thirds, followed by thirds as accented suspensions. Many of the passing triads form diminished chords. At the sudden “piano” a motion of half steps begins: a kind of 2nd theme combines with thirds. (These thirds, suspensions and half-steps will be present and transformed in the pieces that follow.) The first section ends in F. Its seeming repetition is actually on A; then (pp) to C-sharp; to a long section on B-flat; and then, in four measures, goes quickly from B-flat’s dominant F, to F-sharp, G, G-sharp to A (dominant of D) in the bass to return. This detail is given (very roughly) to illustrate Capriccio as a form; a more typical form would move more regularly to closer keys.
2. Intermezzo
The thirds and sixth are transformed in this tender work. Clara Schumann writes to Brahms, “I am particularly enchanted with the A-Minor Intermezzo.” And, weeks later, “the A-Minor Intermezzo, with the non troppo presto, where I can allow my fingers to go.” That section, with its descent of a sixth, echoing from the end of the first section, repeating and reaching further and further, Niemann calls “like the plaint of a nightingale.” The form is the simpler ABA of the song.
3. Capriccio
In shorter note values the descending chords, the thirds, the syncopations, and even more suspensions than in the first Capriccio return. Clara Schumann, to Brahms, refers to the middle section as “the March.” This—very sonorous and songlike—march has its own middle section, like a development section.
4. Intermezzo
The original title was “Notturno”. It opens with a questioning phrase in the tenor, with a swell on the chromatic passing tone, B-sharp, between B and C-sharp. This is answered in the soprano: the question interrupts again, the soprano proceeding differently. There follows a little sighing descant in which that B-sharp—as C-natural—descends. The question returns; its embellishment is actually a mirror of the figuration in the previous Capriccio—but here so dreamy—we move elsewhere; the section ends with the question descending in a kind of sentence. A sighing middle section follows. The return is altered and—most wonderfully—there is a quotation of the question in forte followed by a pianissimo—finally the B-sharp goes to B and descends home to E.
5. Intermezzo
It opens with B-C (B-sharp)-B: that is, with the very tones we have been hearing. Brahms writes to Clara Schumann, “In the little E-minor piece it is probably better, if you always take 6/8 time as indicated in the upbeat, in parenthesis. Of course the particular charm which every difficulty has, thus gets lost, and in this case the strong and supple bending of hands—of large hands!” Clara replies, “But I should never like to hear the E-minor one with the single notes only, because it is just the position of the hands, one on the top of the other, that has a peculiar charm and sounds quite different. One literally rocks oneself to sleep by it.”
6. Intermezzo
The B, B-sharp, C-sharp as in 4 enter immediately, here in the alto under a descending melody in thirds. It is repeated then in the bass, and in sequence; thus the echoing, summing-up quality of the opening. This chromatic phrase will reappear throughout. In the middle section (three-part song form) a descending melody sighs; it is related to the middle section of Intermezzo 4.
7. Capriccio
If one plays this D-minor piece next to the first D-Minor Capriccio, one can hear the connection: diminished chords, thirds and syncopations. A middle section on the dominant with its middle section mounting in half steps is followed by an improvisatory section leading back to the return. This soon changes, as the first figure is rhythmically sped up, moving to a climactic end in D major.
These are the last Capriccios Brahms wrote.
Opus 118
1. Intermezzo
Is it in C major or A minor? We seem to hear “C” at first but A minor is much emphasized in its last measures and the last chord is A major. (Indeed the question itself may witness how bound it is to the next, A-major piece.) Marked “molto appassionato”, it surges in thirds until it subsides on the A-major chord. Brahms sent these pieces from Ischl, where he was summering, to Clara Schumann at Interlaken. She writes to him:
“What treasures I am collecting! It is really quite amazing to get a glimpse at the workings of your mind, to see it all gushing, sparkling, surging and yet thrilling one by the greatness and depth of its thoughts… In the short piece with its ‘not (too) quickly but with passion’ what strikes me as remarkable is the amount of feeling you are able to express in the smallest compass.”
2. Intermezzo
Clara to Brahms: “And then there is the A-major and its middle movement in F-sharp minor, with its lovely medley of melodies and the F-sharp part in chords, how full of profound feeling and how dreamy it all is.” The F-sharp major part is a canon.
3. Ballad
How wonderfully narrative is the transition from the dramatic first section to the singing B-major middle section, then the gradual returning! At the end, it is as though the music says “Halt!” Then a whispered, darkened (minor) fragment of the singing theme returns.
4. Intermezzo
The entire piece, including the serene middle section, is a canon; one voice always imitating—indeed interrupting—the other, while the inner voices imitate in triplets and inverted intervals.
5. Romance
The theme appears in double counterpoint: on its return in measure 9, what had been soprano and tenor are reversed. Hemiolas add to the gracious quality. It seems a pastorale, like a Greek idyll. The middle section, on an ostinato bass, is like a shepherd’s piping, more embellished each time.
6. Intermezzo
The tragic power of this work sets it apart. The theme—unaccompanied at first—circles only the tones G-flat, F, and E-flat, finally making the journey. Dark arpeggios accompany the theme’s lower repetition and a melody in thirds begins to unfold in dialogue, subsiding with the first motive on the minor dominant, B-flat. The entire section repeats, but now the B-flat bass tone moves over a single passing A-flat (third) to a middle section in G-flat major. A “new” theme, the thirds inverted, moving upward (Brahms—like Schumann—sometimes wrote three-beat marches [German Requiem]). This section is so tersely composed, one thinks, “development section.” A seeming return to the original theme moves instead to the dominant and to a fortissimo version of the first motive, but harmonized differently and continuing with second-section material until a true recapitulation, also fortissimo. The form here is remarkable. Its journey is altered, remaining now in the tonic (Clara Schumann had questioned if this was a sonata movement), reaching even higher and encompassing now, “dolce.” It subsides into two last pianissimo entrances, the second bursting out suddenly and finally, in slower note values. The range—from low to high—and the rhythmic complexity are as remarkable as the form.
Opus 119
1. Intermezzo
Brahms to Clara, May, 1893: “I am tempted to have a short piano piece copied for you as I should like to know how you get on with it. It teems with discords. These may be all right and quite explicable, but you may not perhaps like them, in which case I might wish that they were less right but more pleasing and more to your taste. It is exceptionally melancholy, and to say ‘play very slowly’ is not sufficient. Every bar and every note must be played as if ritardando were indicated, and one wished to draw the melancholy out of each one of them and voluptuous joy and comfort out of the discords. My God, how this will whet your appetite!”
Clara to Brahms, June 8: “You must have known how enthusiastic I would be when you were copying out that bittersweet piece which, for all its discords, is so wonderful. Nay, one actually revels in the discords and when playing them, wonders how the composer ever brought them to birth. Thank you for this new magnificent gift!”
Brahms to Clara: “I must write at once to tell you how glad I am that my little piece has pleased you. I shall now be able to enjoy it in peace and calm at my own piano as if I had a license to do so from the head of the police.”
And later that month, Clara refers to the pieces of Op. 119 as “pearls. The one in B-minor is a gray pearl. Do you know them? They look as if they were veiled and are very precious.”
2. Intermezzo
The “un poco agitato”—qualified by “sotto voce e dolce”—expresses the gentle restlessness of its continual neighbor-note motion C, B, and—in its melodic turnings and movements upward—a kind of longing for resolution. In the middle section—marked “Andantino grazioso”—the motive becomes “C-sharp, B,” and flowers in a melody, with something of a heartfelt waltz. A little coda to this middle section sounds the C-sharp, B over an E-major chord; the major becomes minor, in one tone, and the first section returns, slightly shortened. At the end, a last echo of the major middle section returns.
Clara Schumann appears to have objected to these final four measures. Brahms writes in December of 1893: “But I had quite forgotten to defend the passage in the E-minor piece. But it could not be attacked in a court of law, it is theoretically unimpeachable. Perhaps it is only out of consideration for the esteemed public that the whole thing is not simply given da capo, and if this alteration does not please you here you can, for the time being, play it simply d.c.” (!)
3. Intermezzo
The “Grazioso e giocoso” marking describes the playful back and forth of the neighbor-note motion A, G, turning this way and that and surprising us. The melody is in the middle voice from the beginning. After the quick harmonic changes of the middle section, the return is in enlargement and, where it must change to remain in C major, the melody moves to the top voice and its highest point—from which it dissolves in a cascade, splashing.
4. Rhapsody
Brahms to Clara, July 2nd, 1893:
“I am sending you a piece which although it is not really difficult is unfortunately not suited to your fingers. I expect to see you smile over a round dozen of the bars (which are they?).”
Clara to Brahms:
“Here I am contemplating your remarkable piece… How original the 4-1 and 3-2 time are.”
Clara to Brahms, August 10th:
“How powerful the first motive is and how original, and I suppose Hungarian, owing to the five-bar phrases—but otherwise this five-bar arrangement does not disturb me at all—it just has to be so. Then how remarkable are the third and second bars. The A-flat major is charming as is also the passage with the triplets. In fact there is not a bar which does not carry one away.”
And on August 23rd:
“Your allegro stands revealed in all its beauty before my soul. In its passion, energy and grace it is a wonderful piece. How enchanting is the A-flat major, the transition back to it, and then the organ point! Surely this is the passage at which you hinted in your letter to me?… But the piece is difficult though I am learning it notwithstanding.”
Brahms to Clara:
“The organ-point in the E-flat major piece was of course the passage at which I felt sure your face would break into smiles. I know your old weakness for organ-points!”
Clara Schumann, writing above of 4-1 and 3-2, must be referring to measure groupings. “Rhapsody” is a Greek term denoting a portion – or portions – of an epic.
Pianists sometimes associate compositions; the opening of this E-flat rhapsody—its key and its chords—recalls, to this pianist, the second movement of Schumann’s Fantasy. Indeed, Brahms performed the Schumann Fantasy on recital programs. What immediately follows—in its alternation of chord and cascade—reminds of the second section of Chopin’s C-sharp minor Scherzo.
These latter measures on the dominant, B-flat, are followed by a return. Three half notes, sounding a third, lead from there to a dark triplet section in C minor which takes its motive from the half notes, suggesting improvisation as in an epic. The half notes return and repeat, adding a neighbor note; this now provides the motive for the A-flat section that charmed Clara Schumann. It is marked “grazioso” and begins to add sliding appoggiaturas. Are they zither-like touches (Hungarian)? The measures of long tones reappear and lead back to the C-minor section, differently voiced and breaking off in fortissimo. There follows a pianissimo and pizzicato entrance of the opening march theme but in C major. Now come some 19 measures on the pedal tone G, slowly building; this is Clara Schumann’s organ point. We move then over harmonic steps to a triumphant fortissimo return of the beginning—but concluding now in E-flat minor! A wild coda follows, repeating the minor third (in notoriously tricky skips) and in imitations of previous versions of the themes in thirds.
Given the variety of mood and character we have been following, what was to be Brahms’s last piano piece ends then on a Promethean tone.
Waltzes, Opus 39
It was the young Brahms who wrote these Waltzes. Brahms was 32 when he moved to Vienna from Germany in 1863. There—at Spina’s, the music publisher—he found the manuscripts of some Schubert waltzes and began to edit and arrange them. He wrote in a letter: “They have the loveliest faces.” The inspiration of both the Viennese waltz and of the Schubert dances can be traced in his own Waltzes. Brahms wrote the first version for four hands in 1865; he arranged that for two hands and both versions were published two years later in 1867. They were his great popular success. They are dedicated to Dr. Eduard Hanslick, the admirably serious Viennese music critic who was Brahms’s admirer and friend. Brahms wrote to Hanslick, August 1866:
“Just now, writing the title of the four-hand waltzes which are to appear shortly, your name occurred to me quite of its own volition. I don’t know, I was thinking of Vienna, of the pretty girls with whom you play four hands, of you yourself, the lover of all that, the good friend and what not. In short, I feel the necessity of dedicating it to you… It consists of two volumes of innocent little waltzes in Schubertian form. If you don’t want them and would rather see your name on a proper piece with four movements, ‘your wish is my command.’”
Hanslick noted “their bewitching lovely strains… waltz melodies handled in free artistic forms… ennobled by their dignified expression.” Remarkable are the variety, the tightness of composition and the way one waltz leads into another, sometimes by a single tone. They are mostly in binary form; the first half moves to a near key; the second half includes some development before return. The markings include: dolce; espressivo; scherzando; and appassionato. Some have a Hungarian flavor. After the beloved penultimate A-flat Waltz, its A-flat turns into a G-sharp leading to C-sharp minor and—instead of a grand finale—it is as though Brahms (in double counterpoint) is reluctantly saying good-bye.
Johannes Brahms: Seven Fantasies, Op. 116; Six Klavierstücke, Op. 118; Four Klavierstücke, Op. 119; Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39 was recorded in 2006 and originally published by the Connoisseur Society in 2012.