Rockport Music - Ettore Causa, viola and Boris Berman, piano - SONATA IN E MINOR, FOR PIANO AND VIOLA, OP. 38 (1862-5)

SONATA IN E MINOR, FOR PIANO AND VIOLA, OP. 38 (1862-5)

Johannes Brahms (b. Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833; d. Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897), arr. Ettore Causa and Boris Berman

Composed 1862-5; 27 minutes

The ghost of Beethoven loomed over Brahms’s writing table for many years, especially during his time in Vienna, where he spent most of his career. He composed the Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, in his early thirties, while still frequently touring but increasingly drawn to Vienna. Both Beethoven and Bach served as inspiration for the E minor Sonata, the first of two cello sonatas, and for many other works by Brahms, thereby indelibly linking his name alongside Bach and Beethoven, as one of the "Three B's" – a distinction famously coined by conductor Hans von Bülow and echoed by generations of music lovers.

In deference to tradition, Brahms places the piano first in the title of the sonata – a gesture he continued to repeat even 30 years later with his Second Clarinet Sonata, his final chamber work. This reflected the influence of Beethoven’s cello sonatas and the ‘accompanied’ sonata of the classical era in general. By honoring this tradition, Brahms sought to make his peace with the past and what he referred to as “the tramp of giants.” The sonata’s fugal finale is a direct homage to Beethoven’s Fifth Cello Sonata, which Brahms considered its most important predecessor. The uncompromising, robust theme of this finale also bears a striking resemblance to Contrapunctus 17 from Bach's The Art of Fugue, further deepening the work’s connection to the great masters of the past.

Between this combative, fugal finale and the weighty opening movement lies a graceful Allegretto, whose tender dialogue between piano and cello functions like an intermezzo. Its wistful, tentative piano opening – later echoed in the central, smooth-flowing trio section – provides much of the material for the movement, creating a sense of continuity. Interestingly, the E minor Sonata lacks a slow movement. Brahms had begun sketching one in an earlier draft but chose to destroy it. Instead, the sonata’s opening movement, with its mellow, lyrical theme, showcases the full range of the solo instrument – noble and resonant in the lower register, soaring with romantic intensity in the higher notes. Even with his deep reverence for classical form, the sonata suggests that Brahms was a romantic at heart.