Description
The second of the Six Pieces, Op. 118, published in 1893 and dedicated to Clara Schumann. Brahms's late piano miniatures are all small in scale and inward in character: having finished the symphonies and concertos, what the composer left last were short intermezzos like this one.
In A major and triple time, the opening melody is a characteristically long-breathed line whose descending figure doubles back and rises. The accompaniment is constantly entangled with it, and passage after passage leaves it unclear which is principal and which subordinate. The middle section turns to F-sharp minor and moves through thicker harmony before the opening melody returns.
It is rated intermediate, but it is difficult to handle. There is almost no finger problem; the task is sorting out the voices. Melody and inner parts share the right hand, and without deciding which finger sounds what, the piece comes out as a mass of chords. Playing the inner voices deliberately makes a different music rise from the same notes.
Late piano pieces by Brahms, marked by deep lyricism and introspective beauty, often ranked among the pinnacles of Romantic piano music.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Johannes Brahms was a composer born in Hamburg who rose to prominence after being championed by Robert and Clara Schumann, later settling in Vienna. He fused classical formal rigor with Romantic expressiveness across symphonies and chamber music, and in his later years wrote many introspective piano miniatures. This site includes the Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2, and two waltzes from Op. 39.
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