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Brahms’s first two sonatas follow the same conventional structure in four
movements (allegro in sonata form, theme and variations, scherzo, finale)
and evoke the atmosphere of fantastical legend, by turns heroic and dreamy,
of the northern ballad dear to this young and passionate reader of E. T. A.
Hoffmann who signed his first pieces with the pseudonym ‘Johann Kreisler
Junior’.
‘May you never regret what you did for me, andmay I become truly worthy of
you’,BrahmswrotetoSchumannfollowingthelaudatoryarticle.Theyounger
musician was apprehensive of the fame and the expectations that would all
too quickly result from it. In November 1853 the young eagle submitted his
still unfinished Third Sonata in F minor (op.5) to his new protector. This was
to be the only work of his on which Schumann gave him advice and criticism
in the course of composition (tragedy struck him barely two months later).
Of the three sonatas, this is undeniably the most accomplished. With an
‘expressive purity and vigour that are truly miraculous, because they are
all raw, vivid expression, throbbing with life, devoid of habits of language,
devoid of concern, one might say, for the conventions’, this youthful work is
already typically Brahmsian, at once a tribute to the heritage of the masters
and an original expression of its time, featuring a dazzling variety of textures
and an Andante that is probably among the finest movements of his entire
output (‘the most beautiful love music after
Tristan
. And the most erotic – if
you really let go, without any embarrassment’).
46 BRAHMS_COMPLETE SOLO PIANOWORKS