Johannes Brahms - String Quintet No. 1, Op. 88 (1882)

Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
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String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88 (1882)
1. Allegro non troppo ma con brio (0:00)
2. Grave ed appassionato - Allegretto vivace (10:49)
3. Finale. Allegro energico (24:16)
Members of the VIENNA OCTET
Anton Fietz, 1st violin
Wilhelm Hübner, 2nd violin
Günther Breitenbach, 1st viola
Josef Staar, 2nd viola
Ferenc Mihaly, cello
Description by John Keillor [-]
At the time Brahms wrote his String Quintet No. 1 in F major (1882), the models for the genre were exemplified in the works of Schubert and Mozart. Schubert calls for a configuration of two violins, one viola, and two cellos; Mozart calls for two violins, two violas, and one cello, the instrumentation adopted by Brahms for his First Quintet.
The three-movement Quintet is generated entirely from ideas contained in the central Grave ed appassionato movement, which in turn evolved from a long-aborted piano work. In the mid-1850s Brahms had written a sarabande and gavotte for piano in a neo-Baroque style, the manuscripts of which Brahms eventually burned (along with a great quantity of other material). What the composer did not count on, however, was that a number of his friends and professional acquaintances retained copies of the same work. It was not until the twentieth century that scholars unearthed the original piano pieces and discovered their connection to the String Quintet.
In neither the piano works nor the Quintet's middle movement is the Baroque influence difficult to hear. With the original tempi intact, the middle movement functions in much the same manner as a scherzo and trio. Brahms creates further tension by casting the two dances in the keys of A major and C sharp major, respectively, creating conflict and ambiguity as to which tonal center will prevail; ultimately, the A major sarabande/scherzando emerges victorious.
The entire Quintet is a bizarre collection whose very nature would seem to defy cohesion; still, it does indeed hold together, a testament to the composer's masterful handling of its diverse elements. The thoroughly Romantic opening movement is not particularly unusual for Brahms, and there is little in it to betray the work's "Baroque" origins. The third movement is more forthright in its presentation of the source material, here treated with distinctive humor as a collection of Baroque textures that fall all over one another in a sort of organized chaos. It begins with a fugal subject, or fragment of a subject, that attempts to unfold but cannot get to the point of establishing rhythmic surety. Despite the fugal subject's by-the-book opening in a pattern of tonic-dominant entrances, the accompanying chords that are supposed to provide a propulsive rhythmic edge keep coming in at the "wrong" time, diluting the flow. This continues until the accompaniment assumes a greater normalcy; by then, however, it is too late and the fugue has given up. The music assumes a homophonic, fully nineteenth century guise that clearly embodies the music of Brahms' own time. The work as a whole seems to be the composer's humorous retraction of his musical revivalism, a flight of historical fancy that ends as he is finally wrenched back into his own century.

[@yuehchopin]

danke

[@marichristian1072]

Thank you for the beautiful manuscript as well as the lyrical quintet.

[@notaire2]

Wunderschöne und gut phrasierte Interpretation dieses spätromantischen und fein komponierten Streichquintetts im gut analysierten Tempo mit seidigen Tönen beider Violinen, milden Tönen beider Bratschen und tiefem Ton des Violoncellos. Der zwiete Satz klingt besonders schön und echt melodisch. Im Kontrast klingt der dritte Satz echt lebhaft und auch begeristernd. Wunderbar vom Anfang bis zum Ende!

[@elmiramuradova561]

As always amazingly 👏

[@Pabloalexis97]

Amazing...

[@marichristian1072]

I can read arco very clearly but I've missed the pizz instruction which inevitably comes before. Of course I can hear the pizzicato. I'll have to scan the manuscript again.

[@bartjebartmans]

Sometimes markings get erased due to making it fit to the TH-cam format. Or sometimes it is just an oversight on my part. So yes you got it right. I am usually also in the habit to erase page numbers, measure numbers, often also pencil markings by others, just for legibility purposes. The videos are not for meant for scholarly use. One need to have the pdf.

[@marichristian1072]

@@bartjebartmans I understand the manuscript is an artifact- and a fascinating one. I'll certainly take a look at the printed score which has now piqued my curiosity.Thank you for your wonderful musical choices.

[@1bluebulb]

Brahms goes Johann Strauss in the secondary theme ...