Brahms's masterpieces. Popular classical music.
Here are some recommended works from the many masterpieces left by the German composer Johannes Brahms.
If you get to know Brahms—hailed as one of the “Three Bs” of German music alongside Bach and Beethoven—you’ll be well on your way to becoming a classical music connoisseur.
His Symphony No.
1, composed with deep respect for Beethoven, was so strongly influenced by him that the conductor of its premiere, Hans von Bülow, famously called it “Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony.”
Please enjoy the world of Brahms, which continues to be cherished by classical music fans today.
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Brahms’s Masterpieces: Popular Classical Music (91–100)
Holy LullabyJohannes Brahms
This is the second of the Two Songs composed by Johannes Brahms to celebrate the birth of Joseph Joachim’s son, setting music to a text by Emanuel Geibel, which is a reworking of a poem by Lope de Vega.
It is scored for alto (a female voice type), viola (a lower-voiced member of the violin family), and piano.
LullabyJohannes Brahms
Brahms’s classic lullaby.
Many people may have heard not only the original but also arranged versions.
It seems there are versions with Japanese lyrics that are sung, but using classical music as background music and letting it play as a lullaby might also feel elegant and nice.
Brahms’s masterpieces. Popular classical music (101–110)
A fragment from Goethe’s ‘Harz Journey in Winter’Johannes Brahms
Composed in 1896, this work sets Goethe’s poem “Harzreise im Winter” to music.
Scored for alto solo, male chorus, and orchestra, it is commonly known as the Alto Rhapsody.
It is a work with a unique charm.
F.A.E. Sonata, Movement IIIJohannes Brahms
Composed in 1853.
The F.A.E.
Sonata is a violin sonata collaboratively written by Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Albert Dietrich.
It was dedicated to their mutual friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim.
The title “F.A.E.” comes from Joachim’s motto, Frei aber einsam (“Free but lonely”).
Brahms composed the third movement.
Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 38Johannes Brahms
Composed between 1862 and 1865, around the time Brahms was 32 years old, this work is a cello sonata published in 1865.
Aside from a few pieces he destroyed himself, Brahms left only two cello sonatas in his lifetime.
It resounds with the characteristically Brahmsian, wistful melodies.
Horn Trio, Op. 40Johannes Brahms
It is a work composed in 1865.
Among Brahms’s chamber pieces, this is the only one that features the horn.
The third movement is said to reflect Brahms’s feelings in mourning his mother, who passed away in the same year the piece was composed.
Tragic OvertureJohannes Brahms
Composed in 1880, this work was written around the same time as the Academic Festival Overture.
In a letter to a friend, Brahms wrote that he was thinking of composing “a cheerful, laughing overture (the Academic Festival Overture) and a tear-inducing overture (the Tragic Overture) as a pair,” indicating that the Tragic Overture and the Academic Festival Overture can indeed be regarded as companion pieces.