Cello Sonata No.2 in F major Op.99 (1886)

Brahms is admired for a multitude of virtues but rarely for his innovatory skill as a colourist. In the first movement of the Cello Sonata in A, however, there is an unprecedented prominence of tremolando figurations on both instruments. The work begins with a jolt on the piano and an agitated tremolando alternation of harmonies against which the cello projects its passionately urgent message. The most remarkable example occurs at the end of the development where a prolonged series of cello tremolandos accompanies the piano’s dreamy efforts to access the main theme from apparently distant recesses of memory.

The main theme of the slow movement is another inspiration in scoring – an inseparable amalgam of two distinct motifs, one in even semiquavers presented in sonorous cello pizzicato at the same time as a more sustained line on the piano. The semiquaver motif is voiced most effectively of all when it is emphatically plucked on the A-string as the harmonies are dramatically restored to F sharp major after the sombre F minor middle section. The structural pattern of the Adagio affettuoso is reversed in the succeeding scherzo, where a hard-driven Allegro passionato in F minor frames an expressive F major middle section. The closing Allegro molto, a rondo based on an unequivocally happy tune in F major, concludes the work with a mischievous pizzicato version of the main theme and a briefly assertive coda.

Brahms is admired for a multitude of virtues but rarely for his innovatory skill as a colourist. For the most part, the scoring of the Cello Sonata in F is not very different from that of Mendelssohn’s in B flat written nearly as long as fifty years earlier. In the first movement, however, there is one significant departure, which is the unprecedented prominence of tremolando figurations on both instruments. The work begins with a jolt on the piano and an agitated tremolando alternation of harmonies against which the cello projects its passionately urgent message. Tremolando colouring is withheld from the second subject, robustly introduced by the piano after some quiet rumination on the C-string, but it makes a compensatingly poetic return on the cello at the end of the exposition. The development begins with the same kind of texture as that heard at the beginning of the movement and ends with a particularly remarkable passage where a prolonged series of cello tremolandos accompanies the piano’s dreamy efforts to access the main theme from apparently distant recesses of memory.

If the F sharp major Adagio affettuoso seems unreal in this F major context it is all the more poignant for that. The main theme is another inspiration in scoring – an inseparable amalgam of two distinct motifs, one in even semiquavers presented in sonorous cello pizzicato at the same time as a more sustained line on the piano. The respective piano and cello roles are frequently exchanged but the semiquaver motif is voiced most effectively of all when it when it is emphatically plucked on the A-string of the cello as the harmonies are dramatically restored to F sharp major after the sombre F minor middle section.

The structural pattern of the Adagio affettuoso is reversed in the succeeding scherzo, where a hard-driven Allegro passionato in F minor frames an expressive F major middle section – which, for all its initial serenity, proves to be not entirely exempt from the anxiety around it. As the closing Allegro molto demonstrates, however, there is no need for such anxiety. A rondo based on an unequivocally happy tune in F major, it can conclude the work, in spite of a slightly disturbing episode in B flat minor, with a mischievous pizzicato version of the main theme and a briefly assertive coda.

Brahms is admired for a multitude of virtues but rarely for his innovatory skill as a colourist. For the most part, the scoring of the Cello Sonata in F is not very different from that of Mendelssohn’s in B flat written nearly as long as fifty years earlier: both composers favour the A-string of the cello for its penetrative and expressive qualities and they both make resourceful use of the contrasts offered by the C-string at the other end of the range and the variety of effects to be obtained by means of plucked and double-stopped strings. While Brahms could afford to take risks in extending these techniques – the Sonata in F was intended for the great Robert Hausmann, who was to join the composer in the first performance a few months later in 1886 – the basic colour concept remains the same. In the first movement, however, there is one significant departure, which is the unprecedented prominence of tremolando figurations on both instruments.

The work begins with a jolt on the piano and an agitated tremolando alternation of harmonies against which the cello projects its passionately urgent message. This defining moment establishes not only the main theme of the movement but also its characteristic texture. Tremolando colouring is withheld from the second subject, robustly introduced by the piano after some quiet rumination on the C-string, but it makes a compensatingly poetic return on the cello at the end of the exposition. The development begins with the same kind of texture as that heard at the beginning of the movement and ends with a particularly remarkable passage where a prolonged series of cello tremolandos accompanies the piano’s dreamy efforts to access the main theme from apparently distant recesses of memory. As soon as the piano adopts the tremolando figuration, however, the main theme is recalled in its essentially urgent mood, its authentic shape and its original F major harmonies.

It has been suggested that because it is in the distant key of F sharp major the Adagio affettuso must be the slow movement withdrawn from the First Cello Sonata in E minor. It is curious reasoning since it seems to suggest that Brahms was incapable of re-writing it in, say, C major, if he had considered that key more appropriate to this work, and to ignore the fact that there is a significant area of F sharp minor harmonies in the development section of the first movement. If the Adagio affettuoso seems unreal in this context it is all the more poignant for that. The main theme, is another inspiration in scoring – an inseparable amalgam of two distinct motifs, one in even semiquavers presented, on its first appearance, in sonorous cello pizzicato at the same time as a more sustained line on the piano. The respective piano and cello roles are frequently exchanged but the semiquaver motif is voiced most effectively of all when it when it is emphatically plucked on the A-string of the cello as the harmonies are dramatically restored to F sharp major after the sombre F minor middle section.

The structural pattern of the Adagio affettuoso is reversed in the succeeding scherzo, where a hard-driven Allegro passionato in F minor frames an expressive F major middle section – which, for all its initial serenity, proves to be not entirely exempt from the anxiety around it. As the closing Allegro molto demonstrates, however, there is no need for such anxiety. A rondo based on an unequivocally happy tune in F major, it does included a slightly disturbing episode in B flat minor but, once it has confirmed that F and F sharp (or G flat) major are really quite compatible, it can conclude the work with a mischievous pizzicato version of the main theme and a briefly assertive coda.