Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Johannes Brahms

Sonata No. 3, in D minor, Op. 108

 

The Sonata No. 3, in D minor, Op. 108, was the last of Brahms’s three sonatas for violin and piano; it was completed in 1888 and published the following year with a dedication to Hans von Bülow. Whereas its two predecessors were linked together form-wise and character-wise, this sonata is quite clearly differentiated from them. First of all, it is in four-movement form, and Brahms achieves in it a degree of expressive concentration that the other two – in which a more peaceful lyrical flow prevails – do not possess. Here, on the contrary, a decidedly new level of emotional tension is easily discernible from the very beginning of the tumultuous opening Allegro. The Adagio, of a passionate nature, is a grandly melodic piece in which the violin nearly always holds sway over the piano. A brief scherzo (Un poco presto e con sentimento) is followed by a finale (Presto agitato) in which Brahms seems, at least at the start, to be recouping the vividly Romantic quality that typified his earlier works. It seems that the composer was never completely satisfied with this, the last of his sonatas, and pondered at length before deciding to publish the work. Having made up his mind to present it, he and the Hungarian violinist Jenö Hubay gave the first performance during a concert in Budapest on 22 December 1888.

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Un poco presto e con sentimento
4. Presto agitato

Performers

Performance