Johannes Brahms - 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117

- Composer: Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 -- 3 April 1897) - Performer: Radu Lupu - Year of recording: 1971 3 Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117, written in 1892. 00:00 - 1. Andante moderato (E♭ major) 05:47 - 2. Andante non troppo e con molto espressione (B♭ minor) 10:44 - 3. Andante con moto (C♯ minor) Occasionally unsure what title, if any, he should give a piece, Brahms came to use the term intermezzo as a rubric under which he could file anything that was not especially whimsical or fiery. The Three Intermezzi, Op. 117, do not require the technical facility necessary to perform many of his earlier works, but an incisive musicality is paramount for a proper understanding of these musical miniatures. The fact that they are all marked Andante also presents a problem for the performer, who must probe the details of each work and stress the contrasting elements. This is one of the rare cases in which Brahms gave a specific title for an entire set of pieces. Two of the three Intermezzi received their first performances shortly after they were written: No. 1 on 18 February 1893, and No. 2 on 30 January of the same year. - Prefaced by lines from Herder’s translation of Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament, a Scottish lullaby, the first Intermezzo is in E flat major and cast in ABA’ form. The central section, on E flat minor, obscures the 6/8 meter before returning to the major mode for the modified reprise of the first section. - A sonata-form movement in B flat minor, the second Intermezzo provides an excellent example of thematic transformation. The first theme, traced by the uppermost thirty-second notes in the arpeggios of the first two measures, becomes the second theme, played in the top notes of block chords 30 measures later. Because the rhythmic movement from note to note is changed and the textures of the two passages are very dissimilar, it takes a perceptive pianist to locate and bring out the transformed melody. Brahms chooses the relative major, D flat, for the second theme while the development section is built around the fluid arpeggios of the first theme. In the recapitulation, the second theme, truncated and transformed, vacillates between the tonic major and minor. - Brahms once referred to the third Intermezzo of Op. 117 as “the lullaby of all my grief.“ In C sharp minor, the piece is in ternary form (ABA’), with a central section on A major. Section A consists of two ideas, the first stated in parallel octaves. The entire complex is repeated, although the melodies are accompanied differently and some segments appear in a higher register. The move to A major for the B section creates a sense of relaxation as the leaping theme, again with right-hand octaves, provides a stark contrast to the linear, opening idea. A brief transition leads to the return of section A, re-harmonized and in a form more akin to its second half than to the beginning.