JOHANNES BRAHMS
(1833-1897)
Sonata for violin and piano No.1 in G, Op.78
Horn Trio in E flat, Op.40

HENRI VIEUXTEMPS
(1820-1881)
Ballade et Polonaise, Op.38

ARTHUR GRUMIAUX – violin
GYORGY SEBOK – piano
FRANCIS ORVAL – horn
DINORAH VARSI – piano (Vieuxtemps)

Recorded : Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 2/1976
Musica Théâtre, La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, 12/1973 (Vieuxtemps)
Producer : Vittorio Negri†

PTC 5186 155

DSD remastered

THE CRUX OF BRAHMS’ MUSIC

One would be completely justified in stating that Johannes Brahms considered chamber music to be the most suitable genre for his detailed testing of various concepts. His compositions for small ensembles run throughout his entire oeuvre like a red line: ranging from the violin sonatas and string quartets written in his young years (which were later destroyed without exception by the over-critical composer), to the late clarinet sonatas dating from 1894. The famous music critic Eduard Hanslick was to use the “chamber-music composer” Brahms in his musical-aesthetic and historical-philosophical analysis of the “New-German School” that had sprung up around Liszt and Wagner: he chose Brahms as a leading representative of “absolute music” aiming at durability, thus placing him on the opposite side of the “music of the future” of the New-Germans, which aimed at change and innovation. In this case, chamber music is symbolic of “absolute music”, thanks to its introversion and the technical complexity which exists within its movements.
Taken as a whole, the developments and methods tried out by Brahms in his chamber-music compositions – in the first place, one should mention here the diastematic models in their various modifications and motivic-thematic arrangements – are applied to almost all musical genres for which he wrote. Thus, chamber music forms the crux of Brahms’ oeuvre. (Schmidt)Brahms wrote his Sonata for Violin and Piano in G, Op. 78 at around the same time as his Violin Concerto Op. 77, during the summers of 1878/79 in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, where he spent his summer holidays. There, “where it is so enchanting, lake, woods, blue mountain ranges on high, shimmering white in the pure snow”. This work was based on the “Regenlieder-Paar” (= pair of rain songs): Op. 59, No. 3 (“Walle Regen, walle nieder”) and No. 4 (“Regentropfen aus den Bäumen”), which he had written five years previously to poems by Klaus Groth. Op. 78 is one of the five from Brahms’ 24 chamber-music compositions, which do not keep to the otherwise usual form model which contains four movements. Here, the dance-like third movement is missing. All three movements are determined by the concise rhythm of the “rain song”, Op. 59/3; however, each of them in a special manner. In the opening of the first movement, written in sonata form (without repetition of the exposition), the violin presents the dotted rhythm over chords in the piano; and this also determines the second theme. In the lyrically restrained Adagio, an expressive song frames a kind of funeral march in B minor, which once again introduces the rhythm of the song, this time in the piano. At last, the Finale begins with an original quote from the “rain song” in the violin, which does not resolve from the minor key into G major until just before the end. The movement is characterized by repetitions in the form of variations.The Trio for Piano, Violin and French Horn in E flat, Op. 40 was written in May 1865 in Baden-Baden. The première was given that same year in Karlsruhe by Brahms at the piano, Hegar on the violin and Gläss on the horn. Not just the scoring of the work is unusual – after all, the horn was not considered especially suited to chamber music –, the structure of the work also follows a highly unusual direction. The first movement of Op. 40 is the only one within Brahms’ entire chamber-music oeuvre not to follow the sonata form! However, one can discern an attempt to resolve the form here: the musical elements seem to be connected in series, whereby the various themes are also distinguished by the different time signatures. The individual components become shorter and shorter in length, whereby the thematic material is scarcely processed. Like the Finale, the Scherzo and the melancholy Adagio (which, due to its severity, has been termed a dirge for the death of Brahms’ mother) also follow the prescribed structural form schemes – rondo, lied form and sonata form.
The final item on this recording is the Ballade et Polonaise Op. 38 for Violin and Piano, by the Belgian violin virtuoso, Henri Vieuxtemps. Vieuxtemps’ place in the history of music is based primarily on his role as a virtuoso, who created major solo works for his instrument. Apart from various violin concertos and a Grande Sonate, a series of short works are also included on the list of pieces which are still played nowadays. The Ballade et Polonaise is one of them. The two parts of the work correspond to the characters as suggested by the title. The Ballade is dominated by the elegiac mood created by the violin, supported by a restful piano accompaniment. The snappy Polonaise is, above all, propelled forward by a rhythmic driving force throughout the piece, and provides the soloist with all kinds of possibilities to demonstrate his astounding virtuosity.

“As you will know if you have ever heard the wonderful performance of the Violin Concerto that he made around 40 years ago with Colin Davis and the New Philharmonia, Grumiaux is a consummate Brahmsian, his purity of tone allied with an aristocratic elegance of phrasing and a total technical command, and his partner here, György Sebök, matches him every step of the way, the two together achieving prodigies of seemingly spontaneous élan.”
-- Bernard Jacobson, FANFARE

“For those who remember Grumiaux only for sustained elegance and demure objectivity, this sterling yet snappy rendition should serve as dazzling tonic.”
--Gary Lemco, audiophile audition