Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)

The Piano Concerto No. 1, Op 15 in D minor is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms.

" The current Concert was again one in which a new composition was carried to the grave - the concert of Mr. Johannes Brahms "

That was the criticism occasion of the performance of the first piano concerto at the Gewandhaus (Leipzig) on 27 January 1859 at which the composer himself at the piano. It was the second performance of the concerto; premiered it had already experienced on 22 January of the same year at the Royal Court Theatre to Hanover under the direction of Joseph Joachim. Also there Brahms had played personally. Brahms was hit by the criticism:

" Still intoxicated by the uplifting delights that my eyes and ears have been by the sight and the talk of the ways our music city for several days, I force this sharp and hard Sahrsche steel spring, to describe to you how it happened and happy to end out was that my concert held here shiny and - fell through. "

Background

In the spring of 1854, shortly after the suicide attempt, Schumann, Brahms began with the conception of a Sonata for Two Pianos in D minor. But he had a sobering that his ideas were implemented inadequately with two pianos. An attempt to revise the design in a symphony, remained stuck in the early days, because Brahms is not good enough felt familiar with the art of instrumentation and feared to fail in this endeavor.

1855 Brahms had the idea to revise the design of the first movement of the Piano Sonata to a Piano Concerto. She came to him almost overnight, he reported but Clara Schumann:

By the fall of 1856 as the first set was a concert for piano with orchestral accompaniment, which was, however, revised to 1859 several times. The Adagio composed Brahms in winter 1856/57. The first version of the Rondo finale, which he sent in mid-December 1856 Joseph Joachim, his counselor in the instrumentation for the orchestra, he let the end of April 1857 followed by a second, improved version.

The movement titles of the concert are:

• Maestoso
• Adagio
• Rondo: Allegro non troppo

The concert

Brahms deep connection to Robert and Clara Schumann and add his secret passion for the wife of his mentor 're in the works of the young Brahms again raises the question to what extent his emotional life is reflected in it. It is rightly warned hineinzuinterpretieren not too much and also at this concert, one should resist this temptation. Nevertheless: The temporal proximity to Robert Schumann's suicide attempt and his admission to a mental hospital is there. The lengthy process of creating the concert in turn was accompanied by developments that touched emotionally Brahms: Was he after the death of Schumann in 1856 still hoping Clara would answer him, he had resigned in 1857 to determine that this hope was in vain. The fact that the concert is it remained completely untouched, is hard to imagine.

The header record

The Maestoso is a piece of the greatest contrasts in 6/4-Takt: wild and rebellious, but also mourning, of exuberant happiness, solemnity, but also desperate. The changes in the dynamics are skyrocketing, there are also surprising turns from minor to major. The first movement is clearly structured as a sonata, as was customary in the Viennese Classicism. Unlike many of his colleagues romantic Brahms felt namely the formal rigor of the Viennese Classical committed. Clearly, the exposure to a concise and a lyrical theme, as well as development and recapitulation separated.

The introduction starts with a pedal point d in the bass and a menacingly up and reducing timpani roll that is expanded, however, surprisingly, by a B -major chord of the sixth. The angry -sounding input motif, which consists only of shades of this B - major chord, followed by a characteristic trill figure that is repeated in different keys. This harmonious indecisive state of the path eventually leads after 28 cycles but after D minor. The piano melody is sung by the upper strings that could hold for the second subject. Your companion in the lower strings dates back to the opening motif. For this lyrical theme is a reconciliation that eventually opens out into a final group that picks the beginning again developed.

After these came in a kind of ostinato to rest, sets the piano one (cycle 91) - you could at this point already expect an implementation. Almost alone, accompanied only by soft pizzicato and swabs of trumpets, horns and drums, the magnificent theme, piano and espressivo unfolds. By hiding the key and the 6/4-Takt, it is strikingly similar to the input clocks of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. With the characteristic of two bonds of eighths finds it in thirds and sixths only in the right, then in the left hand parallel to majestic size. After 19 cycles, the bulky head topic is achieved with the dreaded Oktavtrillern.

The second, lyrical or chorale-like theme in F major, played from bar 157 over 17 cycles of the piano alone is imbued with solemnity. It ends with a hunting horn motif ( Halali ), which was heard in a triumphaleren variant shortly before the first use of the piano. From the piano, it is presented first, and later again taken up by the french horns, until it fades away in extreme depth.

The development begins in bar 226 in the piano with the shortened for easy Quart jump Halali motif. It uses extensively the thematic elements of the main theorem, which are processed suspenseful.

The recapitulation finally proves that Brahms, committed to tradition, the processing of the topics has made ​​in accordance with the formal requirements of Viennese Classicism. It begins in measure 310 A typical solo concerts cadence, which is usually presented just before the end of the sentence has not. However, it appears to be unnecessary by the end of the sentence towards increased virtuosity of the piano part.

Second sentence

About his work on the slow 2nd movement Brahms wrote on December 30, 1856 to Clara:

The orchestra presents a set in D major theme that takes up the piano in abwandelnder form. Overall, the Adagio is a dialogue between orchestra and piano, in the course of which the theme is always evolving. But in the end, the orchestra returns to the input socket and closes this sentence. The thematic material is related to the first set ( there first in the lyrical part of the introduction).

In his autograph Brahms had under the first five cycles, the words " Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini " ( is he who comes in the name of the Lord Blessed ) is set. The prescribed articulation of the first violins would it be to combine that voice with the text. Since the second set of the original sonata for two pianos had become a part of the German Requiem, it seems possible that Brahms had originally conceived this music as a measurement set. In any case, would correspond to the character of the Benedictus.

Striking is an outbreak clock 46, which reminds with its dotted rhythms to the style of Robert Schumann ( so, for example, in the Benedictus in Schumann's Requiem, Op 148).

3rd movement

The Rondo in 2/4-cycle begins (again with sixths ) in D minor to meet all of the forms of music teaching. Introduced by the piano, the energetic theme is repeated and varied by the orchestra. After a wonderful fugal of the orchestra ( D flat major ), the piano takes on the topic in soft F major. The powerful cadence quasi Fantasia follows the dissolved last part in D major. After a new cadenza ends with double trills in both hands, and fanfare -like shortening of the theme in triumphant size.