Beyond Classical

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD BRAHMS: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3, Opp. 78, 100 and 108

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Masters of American Music

Alice in Wonderland Promotion

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

BRAHMS: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3, Opp. 78, 100 and 108

Home

Naxos Label

Naxos Classics

BRAHMS: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3, Opp. 78, 100 and 108

View large image

$8.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this CD Link to this page

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sonatas for violin and piano Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833, the son of a double-bass player and his much...

Read more about this recording

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonatas for violin and piano

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833, the son of a double-bass player and his much older wife, a seamstress His childhood was spent in relative poverty, and his early studies in music, for which he showed a natural aptitude, developed his talent to such an extent that there was talk of his touring as a prodigy at the age of eleven. It was Eduard Marxsen who gave him a grounding in the technical basis of composition, while the boy helped his family by playing the piano to entertain guests in summer inns outside the city, a more respectable and better rewarded occupation than he was later to imply.

In 1851 Brahms met the emigre Hungarian violinist Remenyi, who introduced him to Hungarian dance music that had a later influence on his work. Two years later he set out in his company on his first concert tour.

Their journey took them, on the recommendation of the Hungarian violinist Joachim, to Weimar, where Franz Liszt held court and might have been expected to show particular favour to a fellow-countryman. Remenyi profited from the visit, but Brahms, with a lack of tact that was later accentuated, failed to impress the Master. Later in the year, however, he met the Schumanns, through Joachim's agency. The meeting was a fruitful one.

In 1850 Schumann had taken up the offer of the position of municipal director of music in Dtisseldorf, the first official appointment of his career and the last.

Now in the music of Brahms he detected a promise of greatness and published his views in the journal he had once edited, the Neue Zeitschrijt fur Musik, declaring Brahms the long-awaited successor to Beethoven. In the following year Schumann, who had long suffered from intermittent periods of intense depression, attempted suicide. His final years, until his death in 1856, were to be spent in au asylum, while Brahms rallied to the support of Schumann's wife, the gifted pianist Clara Schumann, and her young family, remaining a firm friend until her death in 1896, shortly before his own in the following year.

Brahms had always hoped that sooner or later he would be able to return in triumph to a position of distinction in the musical life of Hamburg.

This ambition was never fulfilled. Instead he settled in Vienna, intermittently from 1863 and definitively in 1869, establishing himself there and seeming to many to fulfil Schumann's early prophecy. In him his supporters, including, above all, the distinguished critic and writer Eduard Hanslick, saw a true successor to Beethoven and a champion of music untrammeled by extra-musical associations, of "pure" music, as opposed to the "Music of the Future" promoted by Wagner and Liszt, a path to which Joachim and Brahms both later publicly expressed their opposition.

Brahms made a significant contribution to chamber music repertoire. His first attempts were made in the early 1850s and are now lost, but in 1853 he wrote a movement for the composite violin sonata by Schumann and his pupil Albert Oietrich intended for Joachim. It was not until 1879 that he completed, to his satisfaction, his first violin sonata, during a summer holiday at Portschach on the Worthersee. It had become customary for Brahms to spend his summers in the countryside, and to devote himself largely to composition.

For three summers, from 1977, he stayed at Portschach. In 1878 he completed his Violin Concerto, in consultation with Joachim, and started work on the Violin Sonata in G major, Opus 78. The first movement, in which the piano, as always in these sonatas, is at least an equal partner, allows the violin to introduce the main theme, with its gentle lilt, over piano chords. A transition soon brings those cross-rhythms that are typical of the composer. The violin moves to the second subject, joined by the piano, the first theme re-appearing with a plucked violin accompaniment, a suggested repetition of the exposition that in fact leads to a central development section. The recapitulation ends in a coda that recalls the principal elements of the main theme. The Adagio, opened by the piano, joined by the violin in the main theme, moves from E flat major to the minor in a solemn memory of the rhythmic figure that had started the first movement. The first theme returns in more expansive form, followed by the second, now more gently optimistic, as it leads to the final return of the principal theme. The last movement, with its immediate reference to the opening of the whole work, brings recollection of the composer's setting of the nostalgic poem Regenlied (Rain Song) by Klaus Groth, and of the following setting, Nachklang (Reminiscence). There is a return to the theme of the Adagio, itself a possible reference to Schumann's late Violin Concerto, now developed before the return of the original key and a conclusion that recalls what has passed.

Brahms' Violin Sonata No.2 in A major, Opus 100, was completed during the summer of 1886, while the composer was on holiday by Lake Thun, in Switzerland, and was performed in Vienna in December of the same year. There is a perceived connection with two songs written in the same summer, Wie Melodien (As melodies) and Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer

(Ever gentle is my sleep), poems by Klaus Groth and Hermann Lingg, the first in the second subject of the first movement, and the second in the Finale.

Like its predecessor, the sonata is generally lyrical in mood. The first subject of the Allegro amabile, introduced by the piano, is taken up by the violin and is contrasted with a second subject of greater intensity. The second movement alternates between the serenity of the Andante and the D minor Vivace that serves as a Scherzo, ever faster at each appearance.

The Finale is unusual in its relatively restrained speed. The rich melody of the opening gives way to an arpeggiated passage, a first episode that leads back to the principal theme in a new guise. The following episode is more dramatic, while the main theme returns almost hesitantly, followed by elements of the first episode and a coda that uses the same melody.

The Sonata No.3 in D minor, Opus 108, followed in 1888, again completed during a summer spent at Lake Thun, and was dedicated to the pianist and conductor Hans von Btilow. The first movement opens with a violin theme that is extended in a mood of intensity only suggested in the first bars. The piano introduces the F major second theme and this leads to a central development, over a repeated pedal-point. The Adagio provides a rich melodic outline for the violin, its D major replaced by F sharp minor for the following scherzo movement, with its key lowered a semitone for a contrasting section The final Presto agitato provides a perfect balance with the first movement, its passionate first theme contrasted with a more tranquil second, providing altogether a direct counterpart structurally and emotionally to the opening Allegro.

Keith Anderson

Disc 1

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

(more info)

Composed by: Johannes Brahms
Alexander Peskanov, piano
Ilya Kaler, violin

Vivace ma non troppo - 10:54
Adagio - 8:34
Allegro molto moderato - 8:51

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100

(more info)

Composed by: Johannes Brahms
Alexander Peskanov, piano
Ilya Kaler, violin

Allegro amabile - 8:31
Andante tranquillo - Vivace - Andante - 6:41
Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andante) - 6:01

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

(more info)

Composed by: Johannes Brahms
Alexander Peskanov, piano
Ilya Kaler, violin

Allegro - 8:09
Adagio - 5:14
Un poco presto e con sentimento - 2:58
Presto agitato - 5:57

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Brahms, Johannes

Artist(s):
Kaler, Ilya; Peskanov, Alexander

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 636943482827
Item Number: 8554828
Release Date: Apr 1, 2002