Piano Quartet in A major Op.26

Brahms in 1860 had been through a turmoil
of emotional catastrophe and artistic humiliation that would have destroyed most
people. He had been witness to the madness and death of his benefactor, Robert
Schumann; there was his passionate involvement and ultimate break with Clara
Schumann; and then the bitter fiasco of the Leipzig Gewandhaus premiere of his
D minor Concerto, where he was hissed off stage. This last incident showed him
how precarious was his life as a vagabond composer and how he could not afford
the artistic compromises that normal family life would entail. This conviction
led to another romantic disaster when he brutally ended his engagement to
Agathe von Siebold. And the final stab in the back came in November 1862 when
his hometown, Hamburg,
turned down his application to become the principal conductor of the city’s
Philharmonic Orchestra and appointed one of his close friends, who had no
orchestral experience whatsoever. But his self-confidence was resilient, after
the debacle at Leipzig
he wrote to Joachim: The failure has made
no impression whatever on me. I believe this is the best thing that could
happen to one; it forces one to concentrate one’s thoughts and increases one’s
courage. After all, I am only experimenting and feeling my way as yet. But the
hissing was too much of a good thing, wasn’t it?

Brahms was in Vienna when the news from Hamburg
arrived, Vienna
the city of music where he could still meet people who had been there for the
concerts of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. And so with his dream of a
permanent place in his home city forever banished, he allowed himself to be
seduced by the magic of Vienna.
One of his first concerts there included a performance of this A-major Piano
Quartet. It was badly received by the ruthless critic Eduard Hanslick – the themes are insignificant, dry and
prosaic, there is continual pulling together and taking apart, preparation
without objective, promise without fulfilment – but Clara loved it and it
was frequently performed.

The A-major Piano
Quartet is a big work in every sense, where Brahms luxuriates in his rich
supply of lyrical melodies with an almost symphonic scale of argument. The
first movement is enormous and, despite the easy, good-natured effect, the
sonata form structure is closely worked. It provides an early example of what
Schoenberg  called Brahms’ developing variation technique, where no
sooner is a theme stated that it begins evolving both melodically and
harmonically, often with new keys flowing through it.  So the listener is immediately engaged by the
lyricism of the themes and then intellectually as well as emotionally caught up
in their continuous development. That said the conventional signposts of
exposition, development and so on are respected but not slavishly adhered to.
The opening subject also gives immediate notice of the work’s rhythmic
complexities, showing two rhythmically distinct halves, which are magnificently
balanced throughout the movement. The development shows the symphonic potential
of the material, while the recapitulation makes much of the gorgeous second
theme.

The Poco Adagio has
a languidly delicious, nocturnally muted theme of idealised love that is
bleakly invaded by sinister diminished sevenths, arpeggiated in the lowest
reaches of the piano, alternating with a two note motif in the strings. This is
brushed aside several times but it returns to haunt the F-minor middle section.
The hushed perfection of the theme’s last appearance in the coda is one of
Brahms’ most idyllic moments.

The Scherzo is in
sonata form, yet another new structural venture. The themes are again flowing
and light-hearted, most unlike the normal Brahms Scherzo. The Trio is a canon
on a slight rhythmic figure, whose precision builds up a powerful source of energy.
This energy is released with the Hungarian-style theme that presides over the
sonata form Finale. This movement takes its time in a magisterial way creating
a mood of relaxed strength that easily balances the length and argument of the
first movement within the Quartet as a whole. The Hungarian theme is finally
allowed to break out of this mood and let itself go in the wild prestissimo
coda.