Ravinia 2021 - Issue 1

( espressivo agitato in var. 10). The final, elev- enth variation returns to D major and a pen- sive character. The coda continues the vari- ation process by recalling accompanimental figurations, rhythmic patterns, and melodic fragments of the theme. The source of the theme used in the Varia- tions on a Hungarian Song in D major, op. 21, no. 2, was Brahms’s short-time recital partner, Hungarian violinist Eduard (“Ede”) Reményi. The two musicians met under unusual cir- cumstances in January 1853, as Reményi re- counted in an interview with the New York Herald (January 18, 1879). The Hungarian vio- linist had come to Hamburg for a perfor- mance at the residence of a merchant named H.A. Hellmrich. Reményi’s accompanist fell ill on the morning of the soirée. The desperate violinist walked across the street from his ho- tel to Johann August Böhme’s music store and inquired about a substitute pianist. “In an- swer to my inquiries,” explained Reményi, “that gentleman remarked, in a nonchalant manner, that ‘little Johannes’ would perhaps be satisfactory. I asked what sort of ‘Johannes’ he was. He replied, ‘He is a poor piano teach- er, whose name is Johannes Brahms. He is a worthy young man, a good musician, and very devoted to his family.” Reményi accepted the recommendation, and, at 5:00 in the afternoon, “a youth with a very high soprano voice” showed up for rehears- al. His piano playing so impressed Reményi that he invited Brahms to accompany him during a summer concert tour of Germany and Austria, which began in April 1853. Their repertoire centered on Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor, op. 30, no. 2, and Vieuxtemps’s Concerto in E major, op. 10. Brahms typically presented several of his own compositions. The duo also performed improvisations on Hungarian folksongs, after Reményi had coached his younger colleague in the subtle- ties of “gypsy” style. During their travels, the duo encountered several musical luminaries, among them Joseph Joachim, Peter Corne- lius, and Franz Liszt. Brahms and Eduard (“Ede”) Reményi A growing dispute over the Lisztian aesthet- ic eventually led to a parting of ways in June. Reményi continued on tour; Brahms traveled to Göttingen to visit Joachim. At the end of August, Brahms began his trip back home to Hamburg. Joachim instructed his newfound friend to visit Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf, which was on the way. That meeting changed the course of Brahms’s life and career. Three years later, Brahms revived his interest in Hungarian music after Clara Schumann described her series of concerts in Pest during a concert tour to Vienna, Pressburg (now, Bratislava), and Prague in early 1856. Brahms wrote excitedly to Clara on February 26: “I’m delighted about your letter today and chiefly that you have heard the gypsies. I have long wished to do so myself—to study, to write down, and make notes. I’m really looking forward to what you will have to tell me about the Hungarians and the gypsies: they are indeed something special as a race. From Reményi, I couldn’t get at the truth because he mixed in too many falsehoods.” Clara returned to Düsseldorf on March 16, 1856, presumably sharing her impressions and analyses of Hungarian music with Brahms in the days after. By this time, Brahms was deep- ly engaged in a distant study of contrapuntal techniques with the violinist Joachim, each sharing compositions and critiques with the other. The convergence of these interactions provided the catalyst for the Variations on a Hungarian Song. By mid-November, Brahms had sent a draft of the recently completed variations to Joachim for comment. No re- sponse has survived, but Brahms sent a re- vised version to Joachim in January 1857. Three Intermezzos, op. 117 When Robert Schumann contributed his 1853 article “New Paths” to the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , he proclaimed the young Jo- hannes Brahms the new genius of German music. Schumann was particularly affected by the depth of expression in Brahms’s play- ing: “Even outwardly, he bore in his person all the marks that announce to us a chosen man. Seated at the piano, he at once discov- ered to us wondrous regions. We were drawn into a circle whose magic grew on us more and more. To this was added an altogether inspired style of playing which made of the piano an orchestra of lamenting and exultant voices.” Many of Brahms’s compositions for the pi- ano come from these early years of growing renown. Not only did he compose numer- ous sets of variations, three sonatas, and ballades and dances for the solo piano, but he also wrote for chamber combinations that included the piano. When Brahms left his native Hamburg for Vienna in 1862, his interest in solo piano composition shifted from variations and dances to freer, more improvisatory pieces. Nearly all are entitled capriccios, intermezzos, rhapsodies, or fanta- sies. These works come from widely separat- ed dates during his 35 years in Vienna: there were two sets of piano pieces from 1878–79 and four sets from 1892–93. Among the last group of solo piano compo- sitions were the Three Intermezzos, op. 117. Brahms completed work on the pieces in 1892, at his summer residence at Ischl. Sim- rock published the complete set the following year. Their prevailing melancholy may reflect Brahms’s response to the death of his sister Elise on June 11, 1892. Brahms often referred to the intermezzos as the “three cradle songs of my sorrows.” The preface to the pastoral first intermezzo, taken from the collection of folksong texts by the German poet Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), has somber overtones: “Peaceful sleep, my child, peace- ful and beautiful sleep! It pains me so to see you weep.” The publisher Simrock suggested the title “Cradle Song” for this first piece, but Brahms rejected the proposal. The first inter- mezzo falls into three parts: the first and final sections in E-flat major, and the slower cen- tral segment in E-flat minor. The second intermezzo opens with a B-flat minor melody buried among the flowing arpeggios. The texture is simplified in the middle portion in D-flat major, and then the arpeggiated chords return. A slower coda, based on the second theme, concludes the piece. The third intermezzo, in C-sharp mi- nor, also has a three-part design. The first section begins with the theme in octaves. The contrasting section moves to A major with a dolce ma espressivo theme. The opening ma- terial returns somewhat more animated in C-sharp minor. Variations on a Theme by Paganini in A minor, op. 35 (Book 1) During the winter of 1862–63, Brahms com- posed two books of piano variations—14 variations in each volume—based on the Caprice in A minor, op. 1, no. 24, for unac- companied violin by the virtuoso Niccolò Pa- ganini (1782–1840). More accurately, Brahms entitled his set Studien für Pianoforte. Varia- tionen über ein Thema von Paganini , indicat- ing the emphasis on a different piano tech- nique in each variation, or study. Reportedly, Brahms had Polish pianist Carl Tausig (1841–71) in mind when he composed this work. A first-general pupil of Franz Liszt, the tragically short-lived Tausig earned wide- spread admiration for his rare combination of virtuosic flare and emotional restraint. Wil- helm von Lenz offered the following portrait in his book Die grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unserer Zeit aus persönlicher Bekanntschaft: Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt (The Greatest Piano Virtuosos of Our Time from Personal Acquaintance: Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt; 1872): “Tausig possessed, in a high degree, the power of subordinating his own nature to the necessity of his art, so that in the fugue he was peculiarly at home. He commanded the en- tire arsenal of the utmost possibilities of the piano as expressed in the compositions of Liszt, and was a finished interpreter of Cho- pin.” A formidably strong pianist himself, Liszt said Tausig possessed “fingers of steel.” Brahms gave the first complete performance of his Variations on a Theme by Paganini on November 25, 1865, in Zurich. Soon, other pi- anists studied and played the work, and a tra- dition arose whereby the variations, or stud- ies, were selected and reordered according to the conception of the individual performer. Clara Schumann may have initiated this prac- tice of rearranging the movements. The vari- ations also gained a reputation for their dev- ilish difficulty; Clara referred to them as the Hexenvariationen (Witchcraft Variations). –Program notes © 2021 Todd E. Sullivan Niccolò Paganini by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (c.1830) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 35