Program Notes
Chamber
The idea that there is a Nonet by Brahms may come as a surprise. It is in fact a hypothetical reconstruction of the original version of his first published work for orchestra alone, the Serenade in D. Thus are restored to the world a composer’s first thoughts, making a valuable addition to the chamber music repertoire...
It took Brahms 20 years to be satisfied with the form he finally achieved for this piano quartet, of which two movements had been conceived in 1856. Even in its revised, mastered form, it shows the state of mind Brahms indicated when writing to his friend Hermann Deiters: ‘Just picture a man who is going to shoot himself...’