Violin Sonata No.1 in G major, Op.78
Vivace ma non troppo
Adagio
Allegro molto
Brahms’ mastery of string chamber music was hard-won. Successive works were re-written, transposed and even destroyed in an unrelenting quest for technical and formal perfection. A single Scherzo for violin and piano is all that has survived from some 70 string chamber works which, according to Donald Tovey, Brahms deemed fit only to be burned. The G major Violin Sonata, known to us as the First, was actually Brahms' fifth attempt to resolve the problems inherent in blending the lyrical violin with the essentially percussive piano. But this intense - even obsessive - self-criticism meant that in the works he did publish, Brahms moves with a mastery so perfect as to seem effortless. In the G major Sonata two additional influences may also be felt to have contributed to the music's relaxed, confident manner - the profound integrity and lyrical playing of Joseph Joachim, the Hungarian virtuoso who inspired all of Brahms' mature string writing, and the scenic surroundings of Portschach in Austrian Carinthia. The holiday atmosphere of this mountain resort seems to have evoked in Brahms a particularly sunlit mood; in the two preceding summers there he had produced two of his most joyful orchestral works, the Second Symphony (1877) and the Violin Concerto (1878). The G major Violin Sonata was written in the summer of 1879 and premiered in Vienna that November.
The sonata is set in three movements, without a scherzo. The opening sonata-form Vivace non troppo sets a pastoral atmosphere from the very beginning, although its development section provides the only truly stormy passage in the whole work. The violin takes the leading role almost throughout, and Brahms skilfully blends its burgeoning cantabile with a richly varied blend of graceful accompaniment figures and subtle counterpoint for the piano. The noble Adagio is a simple ternary structure, but its very simplicity allows Brahms the greatest freedom of rhythm and the opportunity to plumb the profoundest emotional depths. The dignified opening melody is presented in rich harmony; it is followed by an agitated central section, and a quiet close in which the mysterious transformatiuon of material from earlier in the movement has led some commentators to draw parallels with Beethoven. The Allegro molto finale opens with three repeated notes in a clear reference to the first movement, although its true first subject soon turns out to be the melody of Brahms' song Regenlied Op.59/3, written in 1873. This provides the basis of a flowing G minor rondo, which also carries along its way the theme of the Adagio second movement. It is with a transformation of this melody, indeed, that the movement finally resolves into a warm G major, bringing the sonata to a perfectly measured close - a unified whole.
R.G.Bratby 1997
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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