Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 09/29/2015, uploaded on 05/19/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The Scherzo was initially intended to be the 2^nd movement of a collaborative sonata, the “F-A-E Sonata” conceived as a gift for Joachim, with the 1^st movement written by Dietrich, Schumann’s student, the 3^rd and 4^th by Schumann himself. The F-A-E of the title are the letters of Joachim’s maxim, Frei, aber einsam (Free, but lonely), and are used as notes of a motif of the sonata. Brahms’ youthful (age 20) footprints are evident: the taut energy, beginning with the violin’s Beethovenesque three-short-and-a-long; the syncopations and cross-rhythms; the intermezzo-like lyricism of a trio that can’t resist brandishing some main section materials for the sake of unity; and a closing grandeur, which seems to define the “young eagle’s” (Schumann’s appellation) soaring aspirations and his extravagant regard for Joachim.                        Notes by Orrin Howard

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.