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Home > Brahms, Johannes > Sonate für Klavier Nr.2 fis-moll

Brahms, Johannes : Sonate für Klavier Nr.2 fis-moll Op.2

Work Overview

Music ID : 634
Composition Year:1852 
Publication Year:1854
Instrumentation:Piano Solo 
Genre:sonata
Total Playing Time:26 min 00 sec
Copyright:Public Domain

Commentary (1)

Author : Wada, Mayuko

Last Updated: July 1, 2007
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Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

A work completed in Hamburg in November 1852, predating the First Sonata. Composed when Brahms was 19 years old, it shows strong influences from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It is an ambitious work by the young Brahms, characterized by a wide range of expressive content, dramatic flair, and an underlying sentimentality. Like Op. 1, it is classical in style yet also suggests an approach to New Romanticism.

First Movement: Allegro non troppo, ma energico. F-sharp minor, 3/4 time. It is in sonata form. In this Second Sonata, too, the opening theme of the first movement is closely related to the main themes of the entire work.

Second Movement: Andante con espressione. B minor, 2/4 time. It consists of a theme and three fantastical and improvisatory variations. It is said to have been inspired by the medieval Minnesänger Kraft von Toggenburg's song, "Winterreise" (Winter Journey), which expresses the sorrow of forests and groves becoming desolate in winter. It leads directly into the next movement without a break.

Third Movement: Scherzo, Allegro. B minor, 6/8 time. It is in ternary form, but since it takes the variations of the previous movement as its theme, the entire third movement serves to conclude the preceding movement.

Fourth Movement: It consists of a Sostenuto introduction in A major and a main section, Allegro non troppo e rubato, in F-sharp minor. The introduction is motivically closely related to the main section and reappears in a free form at the end of the movement, serving to unify the entire work.

Writer: Wada, Mayuko

Movements (4)

Mov.1 Allegro non troppo, ma energico

Total Performance Time: 6 min 00 sec 

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Mov.2 Andante con espressione

Total Performance Time: 5 min 30 sec 

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Mov.3 Scherzo: Allegro

Total Performance Time: 4 min 00 sec 

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