The Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1 is dubbed the 'Rain' sonata because its last movement quotes Brahms's own song settings of Klaus Groth's poems Regenlied and Nachklang.
Composer Biography
The Piano Quartet No. 3 was conceived during a catastrophic period in Brahms's life, marked by his mentor Robert Schumann's attempted suicide and Brahms's unrequited love for Schumann's wife, Clara.
Composer Biography
Brahms, the composer, destroyed five other violin sonatas he wrote due to his critical standards, with only one movement from an earlier sonata surviving.
Composition History
Brahms's 'First' Violin Sonata was composed in 1879 by a lake in Pörtschach, soon after he wrote his Violin Concerto.
Composition History
Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor took two decades to complete, with many ideas originating from his Düsseldorf years in the mid-1850s.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Brahms described the first movement of his Piano Quartet No. 3 as an 'illustration to the last chapter of the man in the blue frock coat and the yellow waistcoat,' referencing Goethe's The Sorrows of the Young Werther.
Recording & Production
Joseph Szigeti, the violinist on this album, recorded all three Brahms violin sonatas with pianist Mieczysław Horszowski over a decade, completing the cycle with a stereo recording for Mercury.
