Seven Fantasies, Op.116

Although long-term structural effect was clearly not a major preoccupation in Brahms’s thinking in these late series of piano miniatures, he did not ignore it. The Seven Fantasies, Op.116, begin and end with a capriccio in D minor and include a coherent sequence of three intermezzos in E major, E minor and E major respectively. It is interesting too that, while at least one or two of them might well have been written some time before 1892, a subtly but consciously recurrent motif confirms that Brahms was not content merely to string these pieces together without postulating an internal relationship between them.

The falling thirds which, in one form or another, are such a prominent feature of the opening Capriccio in D minor reappear in the first bar of the Capriccio in G minor and echo throughout its outer sections. Although there is scarcely a trace of them in the Intermezzo in A minor - the affectionate tribute to Schubert which comes between the first two capriccios - they are quite deliberately introduced into the Intermezzo in E major as a counterpoint to the second statement of the main theme. They appear again in the middle sections of both the worryingly hesitant and precariously harmonised Intermezzo in E minor and the contrastingly stable second Intermezzo in E major. The final Capriccio in D minor takes a firm hold on them in its dramatic main theme and presents them in virtuoso profile in the brief baroque-style cadenza.

Brahms wrote his last piano sonata in 1853 at the age of 20, his last set of piano variations in 1863 and no solo piano music at all for as long as fifteen years after that. When he returned to the piano it was with the four capriccios and four intermezzos of Op.76 and, as far as the piano was concerned, he restricted himself to similarly small-scale pieces for the rest of his composing career. He had by no means abandoned large-scale forms - his last two symphonies, his last two concertos and a dozen major chamber works all date from this period - but in the last years of his life his most intimate statements and most daring technical experiments were confided to the piano. The last four sets of short pieces, Op.116 to Op.119, were written during summer holidays at Ischl in 1892 and 1893 and dispatched from there by post to Clara Schumann who, he knew, would understand them as no one else could. “Even one listener,” Brahms said of these pieces, “is one too many.”

Although the long-term structural effect was clearly not a major preoccupation in Brahms’s thinking in these works, he did not ignore it. Indeed, it is evident even in today’s selection of three of the Seven Fantasies, Op.116. The falling thirds which are featured in the first bar of the Capriccio in G mino, for example, and which echo through its outer sections are quite deliberately re-introduced into the Intermezzo in E major as a counterpoint to the second statement of its main theme. Taking a firm hold on the same motif in its dramatic main theme, the final Capriccio in D minor presents it in virtuoso profile in the brief baroque-style cadenza.

Brahms wrote his last piano sonata in 1853 at the age of 20, his last set of piano variations in 1863 and no solo piano music at all for as long as fifteen years after that. When he returned to the piano it was with the four capriccios and four intermezzos of Op.76 and, as far as the piano was concerned, he restricted himself to similarly small-scale pieces for the rest of his composing career. The last four sets of short pieces, Op.116 to Op.119, were written during summer holidays at Ischl in 1892 and 1893 and dispatched from there by post to Clara Schumann who, he knew, would understand them as no one else could.

Although the long-term structural effect was clearly not a major preoccupation in Brahms’s thinking in these works, he did not ignore it. The Seven Fantasies, Op.116, begin and end with a capriccio in D minor and include a coherent sequence of three intermezzos in E major, E minor and E major respectively. It is interesting too that, while at least one or two of them might well have been written some time before 1892, a subtly but consciously recurrent motif confirms that Brahms was not content merely to string these pieces together without postulating an internal relationship between them.

The falling thirds which, in one form or another, are such a prominent feature of the opening Capriccio in D minor reappear in the first bar of the Capriccio in G minor and echo throughout its outer sections. Although there is scarcely a trace of them in the Intermezzo in A minor - the affectionate tribute to Schubert which comes between the first two capriccios - they are quite deliberately introduced into the Intermezzo in E major as a counterpoint to the second statement of the main theme. They appear again in the middle sections of both the worryingly hesitant and precariously harmonised Intermezzo in E minor and the contrastingly stable second Intermezzo in E major. The final Capriccio in D minor takes a firm hold on them in its dramatic main theme and presents them in virtuoso profile in the brief baroque-style cadenza.

Brahms wrote his last piano sonata in 1853 at the age of 20, his last set of piano variations in 1863 and no solo piano music at all for as long as fifteen years after that. When he returned to the piano it was with the four capriccios and four intermezzos of Op.76 and, as far as the piano was concerned, he restricted himself to similarly small-scale pieces for the rest of his composing career. He had by no means abandoned large-scale forms - his last two symphonies, his last two concertos and a dozen major chamber works all date from this period - but in the last years of his life his most intimate statements and most daring technical experiments were confided to the piano. The last four sets of short pieces, Op.116 to Op.119, were written during summer holidays at Ischl in 1892 and 1893 and dispatched from there by post to Clara Schumann who, he knew, would understand them as no one else could. “Even one listener,” Brahms said of these pieces, “is one too many.”

Although the long-term structural effect was clearly not a major preoccupation in Brahms’s thinking in these works, he did not ignore it. The Seven Fantasies, Op.116, begin and end with a capriccio in D minor and include a coherent sequence of three intermezzos in E major, E minor and E major respectively. It is interesting too that, while at least one or two of them might well have been written some time before 1892, a subtly but consciously recurrent motif confirms that Brahms was not content merely to string these pieces together without postulating an internal relationship between them.

The falling thirds which, in one form or another, are such a prominent feature of the opening Capriccio in D minor reappear in the first bar of the Capriccio in G minor and echo throughout its outer sections. Although there is scarcely a trace of them in the Intermezzo in A minor - the affectionate tribute to Schubert which comes between the first two capriccios - they are quite deliberately introduced into the Intermezzo in E major as a counterpoint to the second statement of the main theme. They appear again in the middle sections of both the worryingly hesitant and precariously harmonised Intermezzo in E minor and the contrastingly stable second Intermezzo in E major. The final Capriccio in D minor takes a firm hold on them in its dramatic main theme and presents them in virtuoso profile in the brief baroque-style cadenza.