Classical Music | Music for Viola

Recorded on 09/11/2007, uploaded on 01/23/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Brahms composed his two sonatas for the clarinet for the principal clarinetist of the Meiningen orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld. These two sonatas, published as op. 120, with the Clarinet Trio in A minor, op. 114 and the B minor Clarinet Quintet, op. 115 were Brahms’s last chamber works. They have since become cornerstones of the clarinet repertoire. Brahms also published alternate versions of the works for viola and piano, which became the first published sonatas for that instruments, as well as, versions for the violin.

The F minor sonata, unlike its counterpart in E flat major, follows an orthodox four movement design. The appassionata first movement, despite its lyrical melodies, invokes the stormy nature Brahms had always associated with that key. Like many of Brahms’s sonata forms, the formal divisions of the movement are difficult to distinguish.

The two middle movements blend together quite well, as both are in A flat major. The first, marked Andante un poco Adagio, is a kind of Nocturne in a ternary form, though its middle section is closely derived from the opening melody. The following movement is an Intermezzo in the style of an Austrian Ländler. The final movement, a Vivace rondo in F major, is full of energy and youthfulness, even though Brahms was sixty-one years old when he composed it.       Joseph DuBose

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Sonata for Piano and Viola Op.120, No.1 in F minor      Johannes Brahms

I. Allegro appassionato; II. Andante un poco Adagio; III. Allegretto grazioso; IV. Vivace

The Sonata on today's program is one of Brahms final compositions, written after he had already "retired" officially from active composition.  He was famously inspired to pick up his pen again after hearing the great clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and proceeded to write a wonderful body of clarinet chamber music including the Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, the Quintet for clarinet and strings, and the two Sonatas of Opus 120. 

Shortly after writing these sonatas, he realized that the music could be effectively conveyed on the viola with very little alteration.  Violists are very fortunate in this realization, and the two sonatas have become cornerstones of the recital repertoire.  Both sonatas are characterized by the concision and elegance of Brahms' late style.  Every musical motif is developed in the most complete and effective way, even linking movement to movement so that the entire works hold together in a perfection of balance and emotional relevance to one another.  The F minor sonata is Brahms at his most masterful.  At times dark and brooding, the music also morphs into the most tender (in the second movement), charming (third movement), and high spirited (finale).      Jonathan Vinocour

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.