Johannes Brahms - Piano Sonata No. 3

Composer: Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 -- 3 April 1897)
Performer: Peter Rösel
Year of recording: 1974

Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5, written in 1853.

00:00 - I. Allegro maestoso
09:46 - II. Andante. Andante espressivo - Andante molto
19:07 - III. Scherzo. Allegro energico avec trio
23:21 - IV. Intermezzo (Rückblick / Regard en arrière) Andante molto
26:47 - V. Finale. Allegro moderato ma rubato

At the age of 20, on his third and final try, Brahms established himself as a master of a genre that, decades earlier, Beethoven infused with a new level of personal expression and, indeed, epochally transformed: the solo piano sonata. In terms of both form and expression, Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor is conceived on a grand scale.

The first movement, marked Allegro maestoso (though many pianists seem to play it Adagio maestoso, Rösel gets the right tempo here), indeed opens majestically, with a theme marked by great solid chords that range across the entire keyboard. The second subject begins lyrically, but it, too, swells in grandeur, and the whole movement builds to a triumphant climax in the bright major mode.
The slow movement, Andante, is one of the great love poems in music, its two lyrical themes combining at last in a magnificent expression of rapturous passion.
The Scherzo is a dark and dramatic waltz for which the grandly solemn, chordal Trio provides welcome relief.
A haunting Intermezzo, a disturbing movement with ghostly echoes of the Sonata's opening, is followed by...
the Finale, in which a dark, gnarly dance of death is contrasted with a broad, confident chordal second subject. In contrast to conventional sonata practice, the second theme ultimately prevails, bringing this youthful masterwork to a triumphant conclusion.

The piece is dedicated to: "Frau Gräfin von Hohenthal".