Piano Concerto in B♭ major | |
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No. 2 | |
by Johannes Brahms | |
![]() Brahms in 1885 | |
Opus | 83 |
Composed | 1878 | –1881
Dedication | Eduard Marxsen |
Performed | 9 November 1881 : Budapest |
Movements | four |
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 83, by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto, which indicates that he was always self-critical. He wrote to Clara Schumann: "I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Ironically, he was describing a huge piece. [1] This concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen. The public premiere of the concerto was given in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. [2] He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe. [3]
The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (initially 2 in B♭ bass, 2 in F), 2 trumpets (B♭), timpani (B♭ and F, A and D in second movement) and strings. (The trumpets and timpani are used only in the first two movements, which is unusual.) [1]
The piece is in four movements, rather than the three typical of concertos in the Classical and Romantic periods:
The additional movement results in a concerto considerably longer than most other concertos written up to that time, with typical performances lasting around 50 minutes. Upon its completion, Brahms sent its score to his friend, the surgeon and violinist Theodor Billroth to whom Brahms had dedicated his first two string quartets, describing the work as "some little piano pieces." [3] Brahms even described the stormy scherzo as a "little wisp of a scherzo." [2]
The autograph manuscript of the concerto is preserved in the Hamburg State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky.
The work opens with the following horn call, which provides much of the thematic material for the first movement:
This scherzo is in the key of D minor and is in sonata form with a trio inserted in the development. [5] Contrary to Brahms' "tiny wisp of a scherzo" remark, it is a tumultuous movement. The piano and orchestra introduce the theme and develop it before a quiet section intervenes. Soon afterwards the piano and orchestra launch into a stormy development of the theme before coming to the central episode (in D major). The central episode is brisk and begins with the full orchestra before yet another quiet section intervenes; then the piano is integrated into the orchestral effect to repeat the theme of the central episode. The beginning section returns but is highly varied.
The slow movement is in the tonic key of B♭ major and is unusual in utilizing an extensive cello solo within a piano concerto (the source of this idea may be Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto, which features a slow movement scored only for cello and piano). Brahms subsequently rewrote the cello's theme and changed it into a song, Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer ("My Slumber Grows Ever More Peaceful") with lyrics by Hermann Lingg. (Op. 105, No. 2). Within the concerto, the cello plays the theme for the first three minutes, before the piano comes in. However, the gentler melodic piece that the piano plays soon gives way to a stormy theme in B♭ minor. When the storm subsides, still in the minor key, the piano plays a transitional motif that leads to the key of F♯ major, before the cello comes in to reprise, in the wrong key, and knowing that it has to get back to B♭ major, the piano and the orchestra make a brief transition to E major before finishing off the theme in its original home key of B♭ major. After the piano plays the transitional motifs, the piano quickly reprises the middle section before the final coda is established.
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brahms piano concerto 2 battle hymn of the republic.
External audio | |
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Performed by Krystian Zimerman with the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein | |
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