A while back I posted on Brahms' Six Pieces for Piano, Op.118 and discussed how they were my favorite of Brahms' solo pieces for piano. Lately however I have since discovered a couple new recordings of Brahms' other solo works and I may have changed my mind.

That's allowed though right?

In moving chronologically to the next Opus number in Brahms' career, we discover his final work for solo piano and the very last work to be published during the composer's lifetime, the Four Klavierstucke (Four Pieces for Piano), Op.119. Together with the Op.118 collection they were premiered in concert in London in 1894, a year after the four pieces compiling Op.119 were finished.

With the Op.119 collection, I have found the most personal preference for the final two movements of the work, the Intermezzo in C Major leading into the Rhapsodie in E-flat major, effectively acting as a finale (also the last individual work for piano written by Brahms).

3. Intermezzo in C Major


The Intermezzi were a medium of compositional genius for Brahms. Toying with rhythmic perceptions is the vehicle of success for Brahms in this movement as he creates a perplexing hemiola effect and employs a very intriguingly playful yet near serious melody.

4. Rhapsodie in E-flat Major

Irena Koblar performsl

I once heard one of my colleagues at school call this piece the "macho of piano pieces." While I may have agreed at the time, as I am currently working on this piece for a performance in the distant future, it also meddles with the word "epic."

"The rhapsody has been criticized for its rather crude from and medieval austerity. But the form has to match its content and a complex polyphony or a sonata form like development would surely disturb the archaic character of this magnificently heroic epic."

Brahms was a meticulous composer for a reason, not a note goes without a significant rationale and while the overall idea of his composition sees that his intermezzi are more polyphonic and his rhapsodies are more homogenized, proves that his enormous technical expertise as a composer is applied to the character ideally conveyed in the music.