In his Second Cello Sonata, Brahms generally achieves a more satisfactory balance between the cello and piano compared to his First Cello Sonata, where the cello's lower register could be overwhelmed.
Composition History
Brahms wrote his Second Cello Sonata for Robert Hausmann, the rich-toned cellist of the Joachim String Quartet, who had popularized Brahms's First Cello Sonata.
Composer Biography
Charles Villiers Stanford, a prolific composer with a Brahms-influenced style, saw his reputation largely eclipsed by the rise of Elgar.
Composition History
Brahms's First Cello Sonata originally had four movements, but he discarded the third movement, an Adagio, leaving the work without a conventional slow movement.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Brahms, despite being keenly aware of Beethoven's monumental symphonic legacy, was not inhibited by Beethoven's five superb cello sonatas when composing his own.
Compositional Technique
The finale of Brahms's First Cello Sonata is an amalgam of fugue and sonata form, with its opening theme indebted to Contrapunctus 13 from Bach's The Art of Fugue.
Composer Biography
Brahms composed his Second Cello Sonata during a summer retreat in 1886 on the shores of Lake Thun, Switzerland, a common practice for him to create some of his greatest works.
