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The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, by the German Romantic composer Robert Schumann was completed in 1845 and is the composer's only piano concerto. The complete work was premiered in Dresden on 4 December 1845. It is one of the most widely performed and recorded piano concertos from the Romantic period.
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. 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. He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.
The Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was composed in 1842 and received its first public performance the following year. Noted for its "extroverted, exuberant" character, Schumann's piano quintet is considered one of his finest compositions and a major work of nineteenth-century chamber music. Composed for piano and string quartet, the work revolutionized the instrumentation and musical character of the piano quintet and established it as a quintessentially Romantic genre.
The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms was completed during the summer of 1864 and published in 1865. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness Princess Anna of Hesse. As with most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet (1842), it is written for piano and string quartet.
The Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 of Robert Schumann was written the week of 12– 16 September 1851. Schumann was reported to have expressed displeasure with the work. This was also the year of the premiere of the Rhenish symphony, and among compositions the substantial revision of the Fourth Symphony, the Third Piano Trio, the oratorio Der Rose Pilgerfahrt, a number of piano works and two of his concert overtures, Julius Caesar and Hermann und Dorothea after Goethe.
Woldemar Bargiel was a German composer.
The Symphony No. 1 in B♭ major, Op. 38, also known as the Spring Symphony, is the first completed symphonic work composed by Robert Schumann.
The Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 of Johannes Brahms was written in 1853 and published the following year. The sonata is unusually large, consisting of five movements, as opposed to the traditional three or four. When he wrote this piano sonata, the genre was seen by many to be past its heyday. Brahms, enamored of Beethoven and the classical style, composed Piano Sonata No. 3 with a masterful combination of free Romantic spirit and strict classical architecture. As a further testament to Brahms' affinity for Beethoven, the Piano Sonata is infused with the instantly recognizable motive from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 during the first, third, and fourth movements. Composed in Düsseldorf, it marks the end of his cycle of three sonatas, and was presented to Robert Schumann in November of that year; it was the last work that Brahms submitted to Schumann for commentary. Brahms was barely 20 years old at its composition. The piece is dedicated to Countess Ida von Hohenthal of Leipzig.
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in F♯ minor, Op. 2 of Johannes Brahms was written in Hamburg, Germany in 1852, and published the year after. Despite being his second published work, it was actually composed before his Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, but was published later because Brahms recognized the importance of an inaugural publication and felt that the C major sonata was of higher quality. It was sent along with his first sonata to Breitkopf und Härtel with a letter of recommendation from Robert Schumann. Schumann had already praised Brahms enthusiastically, and the sonata shows signs of an effort to impress, with its technical demands and highly dramatic nature. It was dedicated to Clara Schumann.
Johannes Brahms composed his Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87, between 1880 and 1882. It is scored for piano, violin and cello. He wrote this piece at the age of 49.
The Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60, completed by Johannes Brahms in 1875, is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello. It is sometimes called the Werther Quartet after Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. The premiere took place in Vienna on November 18th 1875 to an anxious public. Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima were in attendance.
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 was composed by Robert Schumann from 1830 to 1838.
The Piano Quartet in E♭ major, Op. 47, was composed by Robert Schumann in 1842 for piano, violin, viola and cello. Written during a productive period in which he produced several large-scale chamber music works, it has been described as the "creative double" of his Piano Quintet, finished weeks earlier. Though dedicated to the Russian cellist Mathieu Wielhorsky, it was written with Schumann's wife Clara in mind, who would be the pianist at the premiere on 8 December 1844 in Leipzig.
The Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100, by Johannes Brahms was written while spending the summer of 1886 in Thun in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.
The Piano Trio in A major, sometimes attributed to Johannes Brahms as Anh. 4/5, is scored for piano, violin and cello. Brahms is reported to have destroyed many of his works that did not meet his own high standards. This piano trio may be one of the exceptions to have survived.
Written in 1846, the Piano Trio in G minor, opus 17 by Clara Schumann was her only piano trio and was composed during her stay in Dresden 1845-1846. During the development of the Trio, she was going through hardships in life. Her husband Robert Schumann was extremely ill. This trio was completed during the summer of 1846 when they traveled to Norderney in attempts to improve Robert's health conditions. While in Norderney, Clara suffered from miscarriage. A year after the composition of her piano trio, Robert composed his first piano trio, op.63. It is seen that Clara's trio has had great influences on Robert's trio as they both share many interesting similarities. Their works were frequently paired at concerts.
The Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121, by Robert Schumann was completed in November 1851, Dedicated to the violinist Ferdinand David, the sonata received its first public performance from Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim on 29 October 1853 in Düsseldorf, in a concert that marked the beginning of a long term musical collaboration.
The Piano Sonata No. 1 in F♯ minor, Op. 11, was composed by Robert Schumann from 1833 to 1835. He published it anonymously as "Pianoforte Sonata, dedicated to Clara by Florestan and Eusebius".
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7, was composed by Clara Wieck, better known as Clara Schumann after her later marriage to Robert Schumann. She completed her only finished piano concerto in 1835, and played it first that year with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn.
References
- Sources
- Anderson, Keith (2002). Robert Schumann Piano Sonatas No.1 & 3 (CD). Naxos Records. 8.554275.
- Donat, Mischa (1996). Robert Schumann: Piano Sonatas (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDH55300.
- Haywood, Tony (2002). "Review: Robert Schuman Piano Sonatas No. 1 & 3 (Naxos 8.554275)". Musicweb International.
