2nd piano concerto (Brahms)

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The Second Piano Concerto in B flat major op.83 is a work for piano and orchestra by Johannes Brahms . It wasn't written until 22 years after his first piano concerto .

background

Brahms began working on the concert in 1878, but stopped working on it after a few sketches. He did not finish the work until 1881 in Pressbaum near Vienna , shortly after returning from his second trip to Italy.

Brahms sent a copy of the completed score to his friend, the surgeon and violinist Theodor Billroth , to whom the composer had dedicated his first two string quartets . Despite its ambitious scope, Brahms only remarked on this occasion: "a few small piano pieces"; he loved such understatements. In a letter to Elisabeth von Herzogenberg it was said that he had "written a very small piano concerto with a very small, delicate scherzo ". In fact, this second movement is ten minutes long and also very dramatic.

The piece premiered in Budapest on November 9, 1881 , and Brahms himself played the solo part. Unlike his first piano concerto, which was recorded rather reserved, the second piano concerto was a great success. Brahms gave a number of successful concerts in Germany , Austria and the Netherlands , some of which were conducted by Hans von Bülow .

shape

Unlike most concerts , which consist of three movements , this one has four, whereby the slow third movement also stands out due to the role of a soloist cello:

  1. Allegro non troppo
  2. Allegro appassionato
  3. Andante
  4. Allegretto grazioso

With its four movements and a considerable performance of around 50 minutes, this concerto comes very close to the type of a “ symphony with piano solo”. At the time it was written, the concert was one of the longest, if not the longest ever.

Orchestral line-up

analysis

Allegro non troppo

The first sentence is essentially based on two themes. The first, which is first performed by horn and piano together, is lyrical in nature, while the second has an agile and dance-like effect. The connection with the implementation is made by a shorter tutti part. In this the different motifs are linked and the themes are varied in character. This happens in a kind of dialogue between orchestra and piano. The recapitulation is again structurally independent. It rearranges the various thematic components of the beginning and leaves room for virtuosity and figuration .

Allegro appassionato

In this concert the second movement takes on the role of a scherzo. With this form, however, it only has the 3/4 time and the trio part in common. The latter is titled Largamente . As in the previous movement, the theme is predominantly processed in the form of the sonata movement . The swing and virtuosity inherent in the piano part are said to have been particularly impressive and fascinating to contemporaries.

Andante

The theme of the slow movement, which resembles a song, is performed by a solo cello. The movement has features of both the three-part song form and the variation. The melody is passed from the piano to the cello and in the middle section to the clarinet.

Allegretto grazioso

The final movement is a cheerfully tuned rondo finale, with a hint of the Hungarian style. The piano and orchestra present the dotted main theme, followed by a kind of cantilena , played by the woodwinds. The piano develops these further and reinterprets them figuratively. The main theme is repeated twice. This is followed by the second theme of the episode, this time played by the piano. Similar to the main theme, it contains dots, but has been supplemented by a rotating figure. Again an elegiac woodwind part follows. This is connected to the coda by an Un poco più presto .

Famous recordings

Among the large number of recordings of this work, for example, the recording by Swjatoslaw Richter with Erich Leinsdorf and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (RCA 1961) should be emphasized.

More famous recordings:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Wulf Konold (Ed.): Concert Guide Romanticism. Orchestral music of A-Z . Schott, Mainz, 2007.