Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Movement 2 - Piano Score

Piano Quartet No. 3 (Brahms)

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Program Information Past Commissions Apply. Mozart had left two such works, whose excellence may have daunted subsequent composers.

Beethoven composed a set of three in his early teens which he never published they are codified collectively as WoO Brahms conceived all three of his contributions to the genre when he was still in his twenties. The period in which Brahms began sketching this work was a very difficult time for him and his friends Robert and Clara Schumann.

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Robert had been confined in a mental asylum; Brahms did his best to provide moral support for Clara and her children, but his own emotions were extremely strained. In a letter to a friend at the time, in fact, he described the first movement of this work as a sort of musical corollary to the suicidal desperation of Goethe's Werther.

Indeed, little more darkly oppressive movements than the first exist anywhere else in Brahms ' chamber output, while the "new" andante in E major is certainly one of the most beautiful. Above all, however, the work fully deserves its Goethe connections, for neither Brahms nor Werther enjoyed a contented course en route to their respective destinies. The C minor Piano Quartet was first performed in Vienna on November 18, , with Brahms himself at the piano, and members of the Hellmesberger Quartet.

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Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor ("Werther"), Op. 60

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Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 ("Werther")

The Golden Era of Living Stereo: The Remastered Collector's Edition. Isaac Stern Plays Brahms. The coda is introduced by a new chord progression in the first tutti idea and by a solo cello line. Theme B is presented first by the viola and then by the violin, and the movement ends with the first measure of Theme A, stated first by the cello and then by the piano, concluding with a pianissimo affirmation of the tonic. The tempo is Allegro comodo and the exposition is repeated.

The piano accompaniment for the first theme, stated immediately in measure 1, is taken from the opening piano line of Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor, Op. The movement begins with the violin playing a theme above piano accompaniment. Both lines are separate themes that are developed individually throughout the movement, but they are similar in one major respect: Therefore, the violin line uses an upper neighbor tone while the piano line uses a lower neighbor tone.

This is crucial for understanding Brahms's development of the thematic ideas of this movement. The violin melody is halting and primarily diatonic, played over an energetic piano accompaniment. It moves from C minor to G minor, although it ends with a change of mode to G major.

The viola and cello soon accompany this figure. This builds up until measure 39, where a thunderous theme erupts in all instruments. This moves quickly to an idea constructed in triplets. The section in the relative major begins with a theme clearly composed from the theme of the piano's accompaniment, in this case stated by the violin and viola moving in unison over a piano accompaniment based on the previous broken chordal figure.

This briefly exchanges with a cello countermelody.

When the violin and viola soar to an unexpectedly high register, the piano interrupts by playing an explosive broken dominant seventh chord. The strings respond by a piano , homophonic , homorythmic theme to be played mezza voce medium voice.

This idea is taken directly from the opening string theme of the first movement. Rather than accompanying this theme, the piano plays a descending broken chord after each utterance. The exposition ends in E-flat major, and Brahms indicates that it should be repeated. The piano accompanies this with its initial theme. Brahms quickly eliminates accidentals from the key signature as the piece progresses to D major and A minor. Interspersed are descending chromatic phrases played by the piano. In measures —, the cello introduces a new four-note idea E—F—D—E played pizzicato underneath the piano.

The viola plays the opening of the piano's first theme, which resembles an inversion of the sequenced thirds developed moments earlier. Brahms repeats this pattern almost exactly, moving from A minor to E minor to B minor.

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In B minor, the piano develops its initial theme to a greater extent. This part of the development section is concluded by syncopated phrases by the viola and piano, which echo the second half of the piano's first theme in B minor. Karl Geiringer has shown that the next section measures — is an insertion "in order to mitigate the excessive conciseness of this movement. What follows is a quick Tempo I development of the initial piano theme in C minor, with all strings playing the opening four notes moving in the often used progression i — I — iv.

This exact sequence is used again in the coda to turn the movement from the minor mode to major.

A dominant seventh chord in C minor is used as a pivot chord to return to B minor a similar progression is used in Brahms's Ballade , Op. The violin develops its initial theme in B minor and then D minor with all three string instruments. This moves from D minor to G minor to C minor.

The recapitulation, which reinstates the key signature of C minor, begins with the initial violin theme stated forte by all strings, accompanied by the piano playing broken octaves in triplets, outlining the main notes of its theme. After the first statement, the piano resumes its original accompaniment and the strings are reduced to a piano dynamic. This proceeds similarly to the exposition, albeit with the themes developed more extensively. Notably, the music turns toward G minor more strongly and the key signature changes to C major, as the relative major section from the exposition is in the tonic major in the recapitulation.

The rest of the recapitulation is nearly identical to the exposition, ending in C major. The coda begins at measure , with the piano loudly declaring the homorhythmic theme, alternating with the strings. The violin theme is then played by the strings in C major, but it soon shifts back to C minor the key signature too returns.

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