1. Allegro nontroppo
2. Allegretto quasi Menuetto
3. Allegro

Brahms began his E minor Cello Sonata in the summer of 1862, but it was not until 1865 that he completed the work. The main themes of both the first and third movements allude to Bach’s Art of Fugue, but Brahms’s treatment of these ideas is firmly in the Romantic tradition. The first movement opens with the cello introducing the principal theme, accompanied by tentative piano chords played off the beat, before the same theme passes to the piano. The second group of themes ends with a particularly lyrical idea in B major that closes the exposition. A turbulent development section leads to a return of the main theme, this time accompanied by a melancholy falling motif in the piano as well as the off-beat chords. The coda brings the movement to a tranquil close in E major. Brahms originally wrote two central movements: the present Allegretto quasi Menuetto in A minor, and an Adagio which he abandoned. The Allegretto has a kind of folkish charm, as well as an ingenious Trio section derived from the same musical idea. The finale opens with the grandest of fugues, though the movement is broadly in sonata form. Whereas the first movement ended with a mood of consolation, the finale is dark, dramatic and intense to the end. The work was published in 1866 by Simrock (Brahms had sold him the sonata by telling him it was easy to play). The first public performance was given in Basel on 12 February 1867, by Moritz Kahnt and Hans von Bülow.  

© Nigel Simeone 2016